Google v CCI: Supreme Court to hear plea challenging NCLAT's refusal to grant interim relief against ₹1,337 crore penalty

Google has approached the Supreme Court challenging an order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) which refused to grant the tech giant interim relief in its appeal against an order of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) which imposed a penalty ₹1,337 crore for abuse of dominant position..The plea was mentioned by Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi before a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha on Wednesday stating that the order would force the company to change the way it markets its Android platform."Extraordinary directions passed by CCI. Compliance date was Jan 19 and we filed in December. There has been urgency since January 19 is compliance date. No finding on abuse of dominance etc," the senior counsel said. The CJI agreed to hear the case on January 16, Monday..The decision under challenge was passed by the NCLAT on January 4 reasoning that the CCI’s order was passed in October 2022, while the appeal by Google was filed only in December 2022 and hence, no case for interim relief was made out..The tribunal opined that since no urgency was shown in filing the appeal, Google could not be allowed to insist on interim relief.“Once order was passed in the month of October, had there been any such urgency it was expected that the appellant would have approached this tribunal forthwith. However, in this case no such urgency was shown in filing of the appeal and as such the appellant may not be permitted to insist for interim order," the order stated.The Bench of Justice Rakesh Kumar, member (judicial) and Dr Alok Srivastava, member (technical), however, listed the matter for final hearing on April 3 considering the urgency shown by Google for interim relief and taking into account the voluminous records and long order of the CCI..NCLAT also directed Google to deposit 10 per cent of the ₹1337.76 crore fine amount.“So far as in the second part of the order i.e. penalty is concerned, appellant is directed to deposit 10% of the penalty amount within three weeks. It should be in the nature of fixed deposit in the name of Registrar, NCLAT, New Delhi.”.CCI had, in October 2022, imposed the penalty on Google for abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem.Apart from imposing a monetary penalty, the CCI also directed Google to cease and desist from participating in anti-competitive practices and directed it to modify its conduct within a defined timeline.Google then moved the NCLAT.