CCI Ruling Will Drive Up Smartphone Prices, Pose Threat To National Security: Google

Google on Friday said that the ruling from the antitrust body, The Competition Commission of India (CCI), will hike up the prices of smartphones in the country and cause increased exposure to online harm and privacy risks for individuals while also posing a threat national security.

The US-based tech behemoth on Friday veered from its usual, positive ‘development’ stories on its official ‘India Blog’ to put the spotlight on its struggles in India recently. 

The atypical post from Google highlighted its fight with the CCI which has imposed two major penalties of Rs 936.44 crore and Rs 1337.76 crore for “abusing dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies” and “abusing dominant position in multiple markets in the Android Mobile device ecosystem”. The CCI has also imposed a cease-and-desist order on Google on both issues.

In the blog post, Google called attention to the Android remedies suggested by the CCI, which could impact the “safety, affordability and expanded use cases for the next wave of users”.

It said that the if there were multiple versions of Android (‘forks’), it would harm the consistent and predictable ecosystem that has benefitted Android users and developers for over 15 years.

“Devices built on incompatible ‘forks’ would prevent Google from securing those devices, as these versions will not support the security and user safety features that Google provides,” Google mentioned. 

Google said that this would bring forth the issue of lacking security upgrades which increase the risk of devices getting exposed to cybercrime, bugs, and malware. Google said that it holds itself accountable for the apps on Play Store and scans for malware as well compliance with local laws but emphasised that the same checks may not be in place for apps sideloaded from other sources – which could impact users severely if the changes were enforced.

“Unchecked proliferation of such apps on less secure devices can expose vast swathes of Indian users to risk of their data being exposed and pose threats for individual and national security,” Google said in its blog post.

On Wednesday this week, The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) refused to halt the Competition Commission of India's (CCI) Rs 936 crore penalty on Google for its Play Store policies. The tribunal has also asked the tech giant to deposit 10 per cent of the penalty. The Tribunal said that appeal against the fine will be heard on 17 April.

In the first week on January 2023, Google’s NCLAT hearing saw its counsel push for putting the decision on hold, or extending the date of implementation of CCI's directives beyond 19 Jan 2023. But the two-member tribunal did not agree.

Costly Smartphones And Higher Expenses For App Developers

Google said incompatible Android forks will not support the security and user safety features that the company provides, security responsibilities for these devices will instead fall to the OEMs. When this happens, the cost will fall on OEMs and they will have to invest extensively in creating consistent, all-year-round security upgrades themselves.

“This will result in higher costs for the OEMs, and consequently, more expensive devices for Indian consumers,” Google said.

Google also mentioned Android’s compatibility program, which allows small developers compete with larger developers across the ecosystem – based on merit and superiority of product.

In a forked Android environment, the US-based company said small developers will be forced to prioritise which of the various incompatible Android ‘forks’ they write and maintain apps for, as their costs increase with each additional version they support. Google said that this would mean there would no level playing field for developers with Android as larger players would be able to dominate easily.

“This is sobering for innovation in the Indian digital ecosystem, whose greatest success stories are of small disruptors creating a better product and winning the user,” said Google.