India’s antitrust regulatory body has been accused by Google of ordering changes to its business model to protect rival Amazon, legal papers show.
According to said legal papers, Amazon claimed Google’s restrictions made it difficult to develop its Android operating system, Fire OS.
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Google has moved to reverse an October 2022 order by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) which demanded the US company make multiple changes to its business model.
These included offering incentives for manufacturers to refrain from selling smart devices based on Android variants and encouraging them to pre-install Google apps, Reuters reported.
The ten ordered changes aim to curb monopoly-like practices, according to the CCI.
It also fined the tech giant $163m (Rs13.4bn) after finding the company abused its position in the market regarding its android operating system.
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By GlobalDataThe CCI also requested Google allow modified versions of its operating system Android to be distributed with no licensing restrictions, which include those related to pre-installation of Google apps.
Google claimed the CCI’s investigation unit had “copypasted” sections of a European ruling against the company for ignoring anti-trust regulations and abusing its market dominance, a Supreme Court filing showed.
Google further argued in its filing to an Indian appeals tribunal that CCI’s officers had deployed “evidence from Europe that was not examined in India.”
During the investigation, Amazon told the CCI that Google’s restrictions had been an obstruction to its development of its forked version of the Android operating system, named FireOS.
But Google argued that the anti-trust watchdog had unfairly relied on Amazon’s accusation in taking adverse action against it.
Google stated in its filing that FireOS had failed commercially on a global scale “due to poor user experience,” according to Reuters.
“In India, the Fire Phone was not even launched,” Google said in its 1,004-page filing, Reuters reported.
Google’s accusation comes at a time when the firm is looking for suppliers in India for its Pixel smartphone operations as it seeks to diversity beyond China.
The Alphabet owned tech giant has entered talks with several companies including Lava International and Dixon Technologies India, Bloomberg reported.
In May 2023, Amazon Web Services, the cloud division of Amazon, announced plans to invest $12.7bn into India’s cloud infrastructure.
