India opens Google antitrust probe over alleged Android abuse
- Friday, May 10th, 2019
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India has reportedly ordered an investigation into Google over antitrust concerns. The investigation centres around the Alphabet-owned company’s alleged abuse of the dominant position of its Android mobile operating system to block rivals.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) begun looking into the complaint last year and, last month, finally came to the conclusion that the accusations may have some weight. As a result, the CCI has ordered its investigation unit to launch a full probe.
The case is said to be similar to the one which saw Google slapped with a €4.34bn fine by the European Commission last year.
“It is a strong case for the CCI, given the EU precedent,” a source told Reuters, which first reported the news. “The CCI has (preliminarily) found Google abused its dominant position.”
In February 2018, the CCI fined Google 1.36bn rupees for abusing its market position within both online web search and online search advertising.