I didn’t know how antitrust cases in India get their expiry date. It’s when top brass nears retirement.
In the four years that Ashok Kumar Gupta chaired the Competition Commission of India (CCI), the agency took up many cases of alleged dominance abuse by global technology giants. Before his tenure comes to an end on 25 October, CCI is set to rule in two cases against Google.
These two rulings can change the way Google does business in India. One pertains to its dominance in the mobile-OS market, loosely called the Android-bundling case, where phone manufacturers are allegedly forced to preinstall a bunch of apps in the Google family.
The second one entails Google’s proposed plan to implement the mandatory use of its own billing system for in-app purchases on Google Play. Google has been shifting the timeline for its implementation; it is now scheduled to come into effect on 31 October.
In addition, there are two more cases under CCI.
Acutely aware of the tightening competition net, Google has been trying to hire senior (IAS-level) bureaucrats. It finally settled with a lower-rank bureaucrat, but one well-versed in how CCI works. Archana Gulati, who has worked in CCI and at Niti Aayog, was hired to navigate the CCI corridors.
Google has been working with an army of lawyers, top law firms, and independent legal luminaries. “This is also a useful tactic to employ the biggest lawyers and law firms, and effectively disallow them to take up cases against Google,” says a veteran counsel at one of India's largest law firms.
Our deeply meticulous reporting today sheds light on the evolving role of CCI as big tech gets bigger and ubiquitous. And oh, Google could still get a wild-card reprieve.