Indian competition watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Friday ordered a detailed anti-trust investigation into iPhone-maker Apple over its business practices regarding its App Store.

In a 20-page order, the watchdog said that Apple's App Store is the only channel for app developers to distribute their apps to iOS consumers, and that iOS is pre-installed on every iPhone and iPad.

"Further, third-party app stores are not allowed to be listed on Apple's App Store as the developer guidelines as well as agreement prohibits app developers from offering such services... these restrictions imposed by Apple forecloses the market for app stores for iOS for potential app distributors," the order said.

According to the CCI, this prima facie results in denial of market access for the potential app distributors/app store developers in violation of competition norms.

Apple had faced anti-trust investigations by the European Union as well as the Federal Trade Commission in the United States. While the EU opened its investigation only recently, the US probe is in progress.

(Edited by : Vijay Anand)