NEW DELHI, Jan 3 (Reuters) – Google has instructed a tribunal in India that the nation’s antitrust investigators copied components of a European ruling in opposition to the U.S. agency for abusing the market dominance of its Android working system, arguing the choice be quashed, authorized papers present.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) in October fined Alphabet Inc’s Google GOOGL.O $161 million for exploiting its dominant place in markets equivalent to on-line search and the Android app retailer, and requested it to alter restrictions imposed on smartphone makers associated to pre-installing apps.

Sources instructed Reuters in October that Google was worried in regards to the Indian choice because the treatments ordered have been seen as extra sweeping than the European Commission’s landmark 2018 ruling for imposing illegal restrictions on Android cell machine makers. Google has challenged a document 4.1-billion-euro ($4.3 billion) effective in that case.

In its submitting to an Indian appeals tribunal, Google argues the CCI’s investigation unit “copy-pasted extensively from a European Commission decision, deploying evidence from Europe that was not examined in India”.

“There are more than 50 instances of copypasting”, in some circumstances “word-for-word”, and the watchdog erroneously dismissed the difficulty, Google mentioned in its submitting which isn’t public however has been reviewed by Reuters.

“The Commission failed to conduct an impartial, balanced, and legally sound investigation … Google’s mobile app distribution practices are pro-competitive and not unfair/ exclusionary.”

Spokespeople for the CCI and European Commission didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

Google mentioned in an announcement it determined to attraction the CCI’s choice because it believes “it presents a major setback for our Indian users and businesses”. It didn’t touch upon the copy-pasting allegations in its submitting.

Google has requested the tribunal to quash the CCI’s order, and the case will probably be heard on Wednesday.

The Indian competitors ruling got here as Google faces elevated antitrust scrutiny the world over. Google licenses its Android system to smartphone makers, however critics say it imposes restrictions which are anti-competitive.

The U.S. agency says Android has created extra alternative for everybody and such agreements assist hold the working system free. In Europe, 75% of 550 million smartphones run on Android, in contrast with 97% of 600 million gadgets in India, Counterpoint Research estimates.

The CCI dominated in October that Google’s licensing of its Play Store “shall not be linked with the requirement of pre-installing” Google search providers, the Chrome browser, YouTube or every other Google functions.

In its attraction, Google alleges the CCI solely discovered antitrust infringements associated to the Google search app, Chrome browser and YouTube, however its order “extends beyond” that.

Separately, Google has additionally appealed in opposition to one other Indian antitrust choice the place it was fined $113 million for restricting the usage of third-party billing or cost processing providers in India. The attraction is but to be heard.

($1 = 0.9493 euros)

Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil; Additional reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi; Editing by Mark Potter

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