The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a ₹1,337.76-crore penalty on Google for abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem.

What did Google do?

• Google had abused its dominance in the licensing of its operating system for smart mobile devices, app store market for Android smart mobiles among others.
• The CCI examined various practices of Google with respect to its licensing and various proprietary mobile applications, including Play Store, Google Search, Google Chrome, YouTube, etc.

About Competition Commission of India

• CCI is the competition regulator in India.
• It is a statutory body responsible for enforcing The Competition Act, 2002 and promoting competition throughout India and preventing activities that have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India.
• It was established on 14 October 2003. It became fully functional in May 2009.

Its establishment

• A need was felt to promote competition and private enterprise especially in the light of 1991 Indian economic liberalization.
• The idea of CCI was conceived and introduced in the form of The Competition Act, 2002 by the Vajpayee government.
• The Competition Act, 2002, as amended by the Competition (Amendment) Act, 2007, follows the philosophy of modern competition laws.
• The Act prohibits anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position by enterprises, and regulates combinations (acquisition, acquiring of control, and Merger and acquisition), which causes or likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within India.

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