The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) will hear Google’s appeal against the Competition Commission of India (CCI) order on November 28. The competition regulator has imposed a fine of Rs 936.44 crore on the technology giant for abusing its dominant position with respect to Play Store policies. Justice Rakesh Kumar, one of its judicial members, had recused himself from hearing the petition on April 17. This case was listed before the NCLAT bench. The bench includes Chairman Justice Ashok Bhushan and Alok Srivastava. The bench has asked the concerned parties including CCI to file their reply within four weeks. Apart from this, the bench has also given two weeks time to Google to file its reply, if any. The Appellate Tribunal has directed to list the case for hearing on November 28.
Google had challenged before NCLAT
On April 17 this year, the NCLAT bench of Justices Rakesh Kumar and Alok Srivastava had ordered to list Google’s appeal before another bench. On October 25, 2022, CCI had imposed a fine of Rs 936.44 crore on Google for abusing its dominant position regarding Play Store policies. The regulator had also asked the company to avoid unfair business practices. This was challenged by Google before NCLAT.
Google was refused interim relief in this case
On January 11 this year, the NCLAT bench of Justices Kumar and Srivastava had refused to grant interim relief to Google in the case. It had directed Google to deposit 10 percent of the fine with its registry and listed the matter for hearing on April 17, 2023. Similarly, on January 4, the same bench had refused to grant an interim stay on the Rs 1,337 crore fine imposed by the CCI on Google for misusing its dominant position in its Android smartphone operating system and directed it to deposit 10 per cent of the total amount. Said.
Decision to take the fine case forward in NCLAT itself
Both cases were challenged by Google in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court sent the case of fine of Rs 1,337 crore back to NCLAT and asked it to take a decision on Google’s appeal by March 31. The NCLAT bench of Chairman Justice Ashok Bhushan and Alok Srivastava had justified the fine on Google in the order passed on March 29. However, it had removed conditions like allowing third party app stores to be hosted on the Play Store. Later, Google decided to pursue the case of fine of Rs 936.44 crore in NCLAT itself.