The Supreme Court on October 9 (Monday) postponed the hearing of Google‘s appeal against the NCLAT order, which upheld the Rs 1,338-crore penalty by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for anti-trust violations, to the last week of January 2024, according to a Moneycontrol report. The hearing was to begin on October 11, but it was postponed due to constitution bench hearings.
Senior advocate Harish Salve and Additional Solicitor General Venkatraman appearing for Google and CCI sought for a date for listing as the case is unlikely to be taken up for hearing on October 10.
The Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud orally indicated that the case will be listed in the last week of January wherein his schedule for the day will be kept free.
Why Did CCI Impose A Rs 1,337.76-Crore Fine On Google?
The CCI in October imposed a fine of Rs 1,337.76 crore on Google for abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in relation to Android mobile devices. It also ordered the tech giant to cease and desist from unfair business practices.
Google later challenged this before NCLAT, which is an appellate authority over the CCI against any direction issued or decision made or order passed by the regulator.
In March this year, the NCLAT upheld the orders of the fair trade regulator CCI imposing a penalty of Rs 1,337.76 crore on Google, with some modifications.
A two-member bench of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) directed Google to deposit the amount within 30 days.
“We upheld this penalty… The appellant (google) is allowed to deposit the penalty” after adjusting 10 per cent of the amount already deposited as per its previous order of January 4 within a period of 30 days, it said.
Subsequently, both Google and the CCI moved the Supreme Court against the NCLAT’s mixed verdict, which upheld the fine but scrapped conditions like allowing the hosting of third-party app stores on its Play Store.
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