Apple is reportedly seeking to have India’s antitrust findings against the App Store quashed, arguing that investigators simply “copy-pasted” claims from its rivals rather than conducting their own investigation. Here are the details.
Apple seeks to have investigation findings thrown out
According to a new report from Reuters, Apple is accusing the Competition Commission of India (CCI) of failing to properly investigate the claims that led to the conclusion that the company abused its control over the App Store and in-app payments.
From the report:
In its submission, Apple drew up tables to argue the CCI investigation team had not done its own analysis and instead indulged in “copy-pasting” many submissions from opponents in the case such as Match, Walmart’s Indian payments app, PhonePe, and Indian rival Paytm.
Additionally, Apple accuses the CCI of “blindly” replicating a graphic from a 2024 EU ruling, “even though India faced different market conditions,“ Reuters says.
When it comes to this antitrust investigation, Apple and the CCI have been locked in a lengthy back-and-forth that touches not just on the case’s premise and its findings, but also the maximum penalty the company would be subject to.
While the CCI maintains that any penalty can be calculated based on Apple’s global turnover, Apple argues that it should be limited to the company’s relevant revenue in India.
Back to Reuters’ report, the publication notes that Apple is taking a similar approach to the one Alphabet used during its own antitrust battle with the CCI over Android:
Similar arguments by other big companies have failed to sway the CCI. In 2023, Alphabet’s Google argued in its antitrust case that CCI’s order risked stalling its growth, but the company was later forced to make changes to the way it promoted its Android system, which dominates the Indian smartphone market.
The report also notes that Apple’s filing describes the company as a “minuscule player” in India and warns that forcing changes to the App Store “would create regulatory uncertainty and could deter investments in India’s digital economy.”
To read Reuters’ full report, follow this link.
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