Google’s Confidentiality Request Accepted by CCI, Regulator Denies Allegations of Leaking Report to Media
India’s antitrust watchdog has agreed to Google’s request to maintain confidential some info the corporate offered throughout an investigation into its enterprise, although the regulator denied allegations it leaked a report on the probe to the media, a decide stated on Monday.
Alphabet’s Google sued the Competitors Fee of India (CCI) at a New Delhi courtroom final week, urging a decide to direct the watchdog to stop leaks of data.
The submitting got here after The Occasions of India and Reuters reported this month, citing a confidential CCI report, that the regulator’s probe had discovered that the US tech large abused the dominant place of its Android working system in India, unfairly utilizing its “big monetary muscle” to harm opponents.
Google, in its 188-page courtroom submitting seen by Reuters, stated it was aggrieved by the CCI’s rejection of its request, made earlier than the media experiences, that “extremely enterprise delicate info” it had offered to the regulator in the course of the course of the investigation be saved confidential.
On Monday, Justice Rekha Palli stated the CCI had agreed to simply accept Google’s request to maintain its submissions confidential, with out elaborating on the small print of the settlement between the watchdog and the corporate.
If Google “nonetheless has a grievance that any info is being leaked”, it could actually search authorized recourse, Justice Palli added.
Nevertheless the justice stated CCI had rejected as unfaithful Google’s allegations that it had leaked any info to the media.
Google and the CCI didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
On Friday, in a close to hour-long showdown in courtroom, Google had referred to as the CCI a “ordinary offender” when it comes to leaking confidential info. The watchdog’s counsel repeatedly denied the allegations, and accused the US firm of irritating the investigative course of.
Google’s submitting to the courtroom, reviewed by Reuters, stated the publication of the investigation report’s findings brought about “irreversible injury” to its fame.
The CCI ordered the competitors probe in 2019, saying Google appeared to have leveraged its dominance to cut back gadget makers’ skill to go for alternate variations of its cell working system, and to pressure them to pre-install Google apps.
Reuters reported on September 18, citing the confidential CCI report, that the watchdog had discovered the obligatory pre-installation of apps on Android gadgets “quantities to imposition of unfair situations on the gadget producers” in violation of India’s competitors legislation.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
