The Indian Competition Authority sanctions an online search giant for abusive tying, prohibiting forks in its mobile operating system and concluding exclusivity agreements (Google / Umar Javeed / Sukarma Thapar / Aaqib Javeed)

On October 20, 2022, the Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) in Umar Javeed v. Google LLC, under Section 27 of the Competition Act, 2002 (“the Act”), fined Google Rs 1,337 crores and issued a cease-and-desist order for engaging in multiple anti-competitive acts. The Information was filed by consumers of the Android based smartphones on the abuse of dominant position by Google through its practices. Google, the proprietor of Android, an open-source mobile OS code available for free via the Android Open-Source Project (“AOSP”) and licenced by Google under the ‘Apache licence’, offers a bundle of apps through its Google Mobile Services (“GMS”) suit. GMS is a collection of Google applications and Application Programming Interfaces (“APIs”) that support functionality across devices, such