Google moves Supreme Court against NCLAT ruling in Play Store dominance case

Google has moved the Supreme Court challenging the March 2025 ruling of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) which had partially upheld the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) findings that the company abused its dominance in the Android ecosystem by imposing unfair Play Store policies and promoting its own payments app, Google Pay. [Alphabet Vs Competition Commission of India].

Google has also contested the NCLAT’s subsequent order dated May 1, which corrected what the Tribunal described as an “inadvertent error” in the original judgment and reinstated two key data-related directives issued by the CCI.

The appeal was filed on July 21 and is expected to be listed for hearing soon.

The case arose from a CCI investigation launched in November 2020 into Google’s billing practices on the Play Store.

In October 2022, the CCI concluded that Google abused its dominant position by mandating the use of Google Play Billing System (GPBS) for app purchases, while exempting its own apps like YouTube from similar commission structures.

Google was fined ₹936.44 crore and directed to cease anti-competitive practices, including allowing third-party billing and ensuring data transparency.

In its March 28 ruling, the NCLAT upheld several core findings of abuse. It concluded that Google leveraged its dominance in two relevant markets—licensable operating systems for smartphones and app stores for Android OS—to promote Google Pay, thereby violating Section 4(2)(e) of the Competition Act.

“We are satisfied that dominance in first two markets has been used to leverage to promote and protect its position in the market for UPI enabled digital payment apps,” the NCLAT held.

It also upheld the CCI’s finding under Section 4(2)(a)(i) that Google had imposed unfair and discriminatory conditions on developers through mandatory use of GPBS.

However, the NCLAT set aside CCI’s conclusions on denial of market access and restriction of innovation. It noted that Google’s billing services accounted for less than 1% of total UPI transactions and held that there was insufficient evidence of foreclosure or restriction on technical development.

Importantly, the NCLAT overturned several “ex-ante” or preventive directions imposed by the CCI, including obligations based on Google’s designation as a “gatekeeper”.

Citing the 2024 Digital Competition Law Committee Report, the Tribunal ruled that such forward-looking measures exceeded CCI’s powers under the current ex-post competition law framework.

The ₹936.44 crore penalty was also recalibrated.

The NCLAT held that CCI erred in applying the penalty to Google’s global turnover and instead limited it to play store-specific revenues, reducing the fine to ₹216.69 crore.

In a May 1 clarification, the NCLAT reinstated two directions which require Google to disclose data policies and refrain from leveraging billing data for competitive advantage. Google’s objection that this amounted to a review was rejected.

The Supreme Court will now consider Google’s appeal against both the substance of the NCLAT ruling and the procedural correction.