The Google vs CCI slugfest and how it could impact Android users

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Google said the order passed by India’s competition regulator, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), against Android operating system policies, will lead to rising cost of devices in India and proliferation of unsupervised apps which will pose threats to individual and national security.

The ICC order hits efforts to accelerate digital adoption in the country hard, Google said, adding that the order against Android could have far-reaching consequences.

We explain.

The case

The CCI slapped two fines on Google late last year in separate cases. One of the fines, worth more than 1,300 crores, was imposed on the company for allegedly abusing its market dominance in multiple categories pertaining to the Android mobile ecosystem in the country. But, beyond the monetary value of the fine, Google is annoyed by other requirements that the regulator has ordered, which according to analysts could collapse the company’s financial viability in the market.

These include the terms that Google should not deny access to its Play Services plug-ins to disadvantaged original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the licensing of the Play Store to OEMs should not be linked to the requirement to pre-install Search Google, the Chrome browser, YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail or any other Google application. It also asked Google not to limit the ability of app developers to distribute their apps via sideloading by offering their apps outside the Google Play Store.

The antitrust watchdog said Google abused its dominance in licensing its smart mobile operating system, Android smart mobile app store marketplace, general web search services, non-system specific mobile web browsers operating and online video hosting platforms.

Competitors of these services could never enjoy the same level of market access that Google secured and integrated via MADA (Mobile Application Distribution Agreement) network effects, coupled with status quo bias, creating significant barriers to entry for Google’s competitors to enter or operate in the affected markets, CCI said in the order.

Google claims

Predatory apps that expose users to financial fraud, data theft and a host of other dangers abound on the internet, both from India and other countries. While Google holds itself accountable for apps on the Play Store and scans for malware and compliance with local laws, the same controls may not be in place for apps ported from other sources, Google said in a blog post on Friday.

The uncontrolled proliferation of such apps on less secure devices can expose large swathes of Indian users to the risk of their data being exposed and posing a threat to individual and national security.

Google said having multiple versions of Android, called forks, harms the consistent and predictable ecosystem that has benefited users and developers for more than 15 years. He said these forks will not support the security and user safety features provided by Google, and that OEMs will eventually have to foot that bill. This will result in higher costs for OEMs and, consequently, more expensive devices for Indian consumers, the tech giant said.

Google has also warned that if the ICC’s orders are followed, app developers will face higher costs. In a forked Android environment, small developers will be forced to prioritize which of various incompatible Android forks they write and maintain apps, as their costs will rise with each additional version they support, the company wrote.

They will no longer have the level playing field that Android has today, and larger developers, who can support a wider range of incompatible forks, will be able to dominate the market based on their scale, rather than the quality of their product.

Fight in court now

Google had appealed CCI’s decision to the National Appellate Tribunal for Company Law (NCLAT), which refused to suspend the antitrust watch order. Google appealed the NCLAT order before the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the company’s appeal on Jan. 16.

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