Google Faces New Antitrust Probe for Abusing Position in Smart TV Market in India

The Competition Commission of Republic of india (CCI) is at present reportedly investigating whether Google is abusing its ascendant market position with Android smartphones to stifle competition in the smart TV market place. That's according to Reuters, which claims that the news has been confirmed by at least ii lawyers involved in the case.

Co-ordinate to the report, the regulator opened the investigation last June following allegations that Google engages in anti-competitive practices by creating barriers for OEMs and developers wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for smart TVs.

The complaint alleges that Google restricts its OEM partners from using both full-fledged Android (with Google apps and services) and forked versions of the software on different devices. Apparently, if a company sells smart TVs with Amazon's Burn down OS, Google then confined that firm from offer the Play Store and other Google apps on its smartphones.

The example was filed by two antitrust lawyers, Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand, both of whom take since confirmed the filing. While neither of them could speak on record about CCI'due south investigation, one of the sources quoted by Reuters claimed that the regulator had asked Google to submit its written responses to the allegations, but the company has sought more time. A Google spokesman declined to comment on the written report.

The news comes a few months after the CCI opened an antitrust investigation into Google about whether the company is abusing its dominant market position in the land to unfairly promote its UPI payments app, Google Pay. This would be the fourth major antitrust investigation confronting the US tech behemothic in India.