By Oyintari Ben
Indian authorities has fined Google 13 billion rupees ($161 million; £144 million) for monopolizing the market with its Android platform.
The internet giant has been charged with making “one-sided deals” with smart phone manufacturers in order to maintain the dominance of its apps, according to the nation’s competition commission.
Google has been told to “stop and desist” from these actions.
Google has not yet replied to the penalty or the charges.
Google was “abusing” the licensing of its Android operating system for a variety of smart phones, web searches, browsing, and video hosting services, according to a statement released on Thursday by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
It claimed that Google was entering into coerced deals with competitors in order to force users to use its suite of programs, including Google Maps, Google Chrome, and YouTube.
In addition to giving Google constant access to consumer data and fruitful advertising opportunities, the statement said that this approach was stifling competition.
The CCI has additionally requested that Google permit device manufacturers and users to install apps of their choice during the initial setup of the device, rather than requiring them to pre-load Google’s apps.
The statement read, “Markets should be permitted to compete on merits and the onus is on the dominant companies (in this example, Google) to ensure that their behaviour does not impede this competition on merits.”
In addition to being the subject of several antitrust proceedings in India, authorities are also looking into Google’s actions in the market for smart TVs and its in-app payment system.
2019 saw the launch of the Android-related investigation in response to customer complaints about Android smart phones.
The situation is comparable to the one Google dealt with in Europe, where authorities fined the business $5 billion for abusing the market by utilizing its Android operating system.
