Tech giant Google on Thursday filed a writ petition with the Delhi High Court against India's antitrust regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) following the leak of a confidential report.

Google has alleged that a confidential interim fact-finding report submitted by the Director General’s office to the CCI on September 18 was leaked to the media. The report was related to an ongoing investigation into Google’s Android smartphone agreements. Google has not yet received or reviewed this confidential report, it said.

The tech giant has filed the petition seeking redress in the matter. Google’s statement added that it is specifically protesting against the breach of confidence which impairs its ability to defend itself and harms the firm and its partners.

“We are deeply concerned that the Director General’s Report, which contains our confidential information in an ongoing case, was leaked to the media while in the CCI’s custody. Protecting confidential information is fundamental to any governmental investigation, and we are pursuing our legal right to seek redress and prevent any further unlawful disclosures," a Google spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that Google will cooperated fully and maintained confidentiality throughout the investigative process, and expects the same level of confidentiality from the institutions it engages with.

This comes after reports last week had stated that CCI's investigation arm, the Director-General (DG), has found that Google indulged in unfair business practices in relation to Android. After prima-facie finding alleged violation of competition norms, CCI - in early 2019 - had ordered a detailed probe against Google in this regard.

Google, however, clarified that the DG’s findings do not reflect the final decision of the CCI and the submission of the investigation report is an interim procedural step. Google has not yet had the opportunity to review the DG’s findings, much less submit its defence of any allegations, the company said in a statement.

(Edited by : Kanishka Sarkar)

First Published:Sept 23, 2021 2:28 PM IST