Google hit with $162 million fine for anti-competitive practices

Tech giants such as Google are occasionally subject to heavy fines. The company was last fined with $4.3 billion by the European Union over anti-competitive practices. Now, the same fine comes from India. Country has fined Google with $162 million as regulators found Google guilty of anti-competitive practices. 

India fines Google $162 million for anti-competitive practices 

Google, owned by Alphabet Inc., has been fined approximately $162 million by the India's antitrust regulator for abusing its "dominant position in multiple markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem." 

Google has been requested by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to alter its anti-competitive practices because Google owns the Android operating system and allows some of its own products, like YouTube and Google Search, come pre-installed on all Android-run devices. Therefore, during the investigation, the commission concluded that Google has an unfair competitive advantage in the market.

In addition, CCI prohibited Google from entering into certain revenue-sharing agreements with smartphone manufacturers, pointing out that these anti-competitive practices facilitated Google's acquisition of exclusive access to its search services "to the total exclusion of competitors."

According to Counterpoint Research, 97% of India's 600 million smartphones run on Google's Android operating system. Tech giants have been pouring huge sums of money into India in the recent years. Facebook, Google, Netflix, Amazon and more have already made billion-dollar investments in expanding their operations in India. 

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