The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on January 16 Google’s appeal against the National Court of Corporate Law Appeal (NCLAT)’s refusal to uphold Rs. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a penalty of 1,337.76 crore on the tech giant for alleged anti-competitive practices.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha said they would hear the case on Monday.
Begging for an expedited hearing, senior attorney Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Google, said: “CCI has adopted unusual instructions. I request (list the case) on Friday. Compliance date (command) is the 19th otherwise the matter will become useless.”
“We’ll keep it on Monday,” the bench said.
After facing defeat at the NCLAT, which refused to obey CCI’s orders, Google access the Supreme Court. In October 2022, CCI imposed a penalty on Google for abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem, and directed the tech giant to stop and not engage in anti-competitive activities.
Google objected to the NCLAT’s January 4 order. This order refused to uphold the CCI order on the grounds that the CCI order was passed in October 2022, while Google’s complaint was only filed in December 2022 and therefore, there were no cases for reduction. Any temporary relief is taken apart.
Because no urgency was expressed in filing the appeal, Google was not allowed to insist on the interim relief, the Court said.
NCLAT also directed Google to deposit 10 percent of Rs. A fine of 1,337.76 crore within three weeks.
Google challenged the CCI order in the NCLAT, which is the appellate authority for the CCI against any guidance issued by the regulator.
