Google appeals to SC over CCI’s Rs 216.69 crore fine on Play Store billing rules

New Delhi: Tech giant Google has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court of India challenging a March 2025 ruling by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), which partially upheld the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) antitrust order regarding its Play Store billing policies. 

The appeal, registered on July 21, contests the reduced penalty of Rs 216.69 crore imposed on Google for abusing its dominant position in the Android ecosystem.

The case originated in November 2020 when the CCI launched an investigation into Google’s Play Store practices following complaints about the mandatory use of its Google Play Billing System (GPBS) for paid apps and in-app purchases. 

In October 2022, the CCI found Google guilty of anti-competitive practices, imposing a fine of Rs 936.44 crore and issuing a cease-and-desist order. The regulator accused Google of enforcing unfair and discriminatory conditions on app developers by mandating GPBS, which required developers to pay a commission of 15-30%, while exempting its own apps, such as YouTube, from similar rules. Additionally, the CCI alleged Google leveraged its dominance to promote its payment app, Google Pay, over rival UPI-based apps, violating Section 4(2)(e) of the Competition Act.

In March 2025, the NCLAT upheld key aspects of the CCI’s findings, including Google’s misuse of dominance and discriminatory practices. However, it reduced the penalty to Rs 216.69 crore, arguing that the CCI had incorrectly calculated the fine based on Google’s global revenue rather than its Play Store-specific earnings in India. The tribunal also directed Google to allow third-party billing systems and ensure transparency in its data-sharing policies. In a May 1 clarification, the NCLAT reinstated two CCI directives inadvertently omitted in its original ruling: one requiring Google to disclose its data usage policies clearly and another prohibiting the use of billing data to gain a competitive edge.

Google’s appeal to the Supreme Court challenges both the NCLAT’s March ruling and the May clarification. The appeal argues that the NCLAT’s reinstatement of the two directives amounted to an improper review of its own judgment, a claim the tribunal rejected.

This is not Google’s first brush with Indian antitrust authorities. In October 2022, the CCI imposed a separate Rs 1,337.76 crore fine on Google for abusing its dominance in the Android mobile device ecosystem, a penalty Google paid after the NCLAT upheld it in March 2023. In April 2025, the CCI also approved a Rs 20.24 crore settlement in an Android TV antitrust case.