‘CCI’s decision on Apple may not be as harsh as Google’s’

While Google faces 936 crore fine for its billing policies on the Play Store, Apple may be able to avoid the penalty as it does not have a licenseable operating system. In fact, the CCI said there was a gap between the ecosystems of Apple and Google because Google imposed its billing system on app developers selling services and digital items on the Play Store.

The CCI, in its order last week, said that the practice of Google mandating the use of its billing methods on the Play Store to earn commission was antithetical under Indian competition laws. CCI imposed fine 936 crore and asked Google to open its billing ecosystem to third party channels within 90 days of the order. Google is expected to challenge the CCI order.

“In its inquiry order to Apple, the CCI had said that if a developer wants to access Apple’s user base, the App Store is the only way. Once upon a time, all Apple policies are mandatory. Therefore, unless Apple can justify this restriction and demonstrate security, privacy or other factors that are compelling enough to show that the App Store is sufficient to outweigh restrictive market influences, They will likely face the same future,” said a competition attorney requesting anonymity.

During Epic Games’ trial, Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering at Apple, told the court that its Mac desktop operating system, which allows the use of third-party download sources and billing methods, was vulnerable to a variety of cyber breaches. is much more prone to. , This, the executive claimed, is quite different to iOS and does not allow for alternative app download locations or third-party billing systems. Apple won the case and the judge declared that it was not engaging in monopolistic practices, although Apple was ordered to allow third-party payments on the App Store.

The lawyer cited above said that Apple can combine this argument with the fact that it has a very small market share in India. According to market researcher International Data Corp, at the end of 2021, Apple’s market share in India was 3.8%. Apple may be trying to prove that its ecosystem is on par with a particular environment and is not interchangeable with Android devices, partly because its iPhones are more expensive. An Apple official in India declined to comment.

“In the smartphone space, the important point to note is that despite differing software ecosystems, if two devices are interchangeable for a consumer, they may well fall into the same domain. With this factor in mind, Apple One may try to show the interchangeability between an iPhone and an Android device is not the same,” the lawyer said.