Google Fails to Block Indian Antitrust Ruling, Agrees to Cooperate With Authorities

It seems like Google’s troubles in India are nowhere close to being over, with the tech juggernaut recently failing to block an antitrust order after its appeal was struck down by the Supreme Court. Google now has one week to comply with the directives of the Competition Commission of India, although the case might still see a different result once it goes back to appellate court.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Google’s entire business model in the South Asian nation might come crashing down if these regulations are implemented. For one thing, app developers would no longer need to install Google apps in order to obtain licensing on the Google Play Store.

What’s more, the court has ordered Google to allow users to delete all apps from their phones regardless of whether or not they are supposedly essential. Users will now also have the chance to change their search engine, which is something that Google had disallowed in the past.

This is a definite setback for the search engine giant, but in spite of the fact that this is the case Google will be cooperating with the authorities after this ruling. What type of impact this ruling will have on their operations remains to be seen, but chances are that it will be harder for them to maintain their monopoly than might have been the case otherwise.

Google has invested on average $1 billion per year over the past decade into the Indian market, which makes sense since India is its biggest market in the entire world. India is important since it is one of the nations in the world that almost exclusively favors Android phones, and Google would never want to do anything to compromise that.

The $165 million fine on top of everything else will be salt in Google’s wounds. This is just the latest in a series of defeats that Google has faced which are threating threatening to topple the hegemony o the company and potentially make way for new giants to emerge.


H/T: TechCrunch

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