As the government works to introduce a new Digital India Act, Google has paid the entire Rs 1,337.76 crore penalty amount imposed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in the Android case. This is likely the first instance of a Big Tech company paying a fine to Indian regulators.

According to IANS sources, the entire penalty amount has been deposited in the Consolidated Fund of India, within the 30-day deadline given by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in its order.

In October 2022, the Indian market regulator fined Google for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the Android market.

Earlier this year, Google announced to comply with the CCI's directives for Android.

"The CCI's recent directives for Android and Play require us to make significant changes for India, and we've informed the CCI of how we will be complying with their directives," Google had said in a statement.

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"We're updating the Android compatibility requirements to introduce changes for partners to build non-compatible or forked variants," the statement added.

Developers can allow users to select a different billing method in addition to Google Play's billing method when they buy in-app digital content by using user-choice billing.

The changes came as a Supreme Court bench said that the findings by the CCI cannot be said to be "without jurisdiction or with manifest error" and affirmed the NCLAT order, declining to grant interim relief to Google.

The bench gave Google seven days to deposit 10 percent of the Rs 1,337.76 crore fine levied by the CCI and ordered the NCLAT to rule on Google's appeal by March 31.

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Google had alleged that the CCI copy-pasted parts of a European court order without examining associated evidence in India.

The CCI has also imposed a penalty of Rs 936.44 crore on Google in a separate case for abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies.

In response to Google's announcement of implementing its new Google Play payments policy, the Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) had expressed deep concern over the policy change and has demanded that the new policies must be put on hold, since Google charging a nearly 30 percent service fee on app developers will prove to be a significant blow to the Indian startup ecosystem.

(With IANS inputs)

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