After Europe now in India Google is facing an anti-trust order. As Google already had to pay a fine of 4.3 billion dollars after losing its appeal in Europe. But the question is what is antitrust order and how it affects the growth of the Android ecosystem in India?
What does an Antitrust order mean in India?
An Antitrust order is a fine that is levied on a company by the CCI or Competition Commission of India. CCI has fined Google a total of 162 million dollars for anti-competitive practices on the android. What exactly is Google doing that CCI did not like?
We do not have official words, but some critics say Google lends its Android system to smartphone manufacturers which is good. But they also put restrictions on manufacturers like making it compulsory to preinstall Google’s apps.
Some other possible objections might be that the users then are not even able to delete the preinstalled google apps. And it is also important to have Google play store licensing if any other apps are to be preinstalled.
All the above are part of the Google contract with the manufacturers of various Android smartphones. According to CCI, it restricts Google’s competition for having fair competition.
What did Google say about the Antitrust Order?
Google has said that this Antitrust order is going to negatively affect the people of India who are a part of the Android ecosystem. As this order is going to affect the growth of Android as a whole in India. For Google, India is the largest market when it comes to the number of users. 97% of 600 million smartphones in India are powered by Android.
Google said in filing that it directly halts the Growth of the ecosystem of manufacturers, App developers, and users. They argued that the preinstallation of its apps allows the Android to be free for the Manufacturers, and changing that would force google to charge for its OS.
Google also pleaded to the NCLAT to put a hold on the order but it was rejected by NCLAT. NCLAT asked Google to pay 10% of the 162 million dollars fine.
How does this Antitrust Order affect Android as a whole?
India is not just Google’s biggest user base but also a very important source of data and feedback. Which is used in the development of new products for Android as a whole. The data and feedback are also important to improve the existing systems, features, and programs.
It also affects the Android Ecosystem’s new inventions like “Uninterrupted listen” as it is new and would require a lot of data collection to make it a program that can be used by millions.
This order could be bad for Indian consumers as well. Because this order might force Google to charge for its OS. Google might only have to charge for devices that are meant to be shipped to India. This might cause an increase in the price of android devices. This is especially bad for Indian consumers, most of them are in either the middle class or lower middle class.
Not the first Rodeo for Google.
This is not the first time Google has had to go through such an Order, in 2018 Google had to face a similar situation in Europe and a fine amount for a whopping 4.3 billion dollars. Similar to This antitrust order Google was accused of using the dominance of Android to thwart its competition.
Google does have a point when saying that the contract has been the same for over a decade, and Google does have the best products when it comes to android. It is also true that this halts valuable progress. This is especially bad for People in still developing countries as they need all the help they can get. And Google is certainly best at that with apps like Google Classroom, Google meets, and most important Google Search.
However, having competition can also increase the speed of improvement, and in India over 150 developers and companies have come together in the past to try to launch their own app stores.
Situations like these never have a clear solution and the best option is always somewhere in the middle. Let us hope this is resolved soon and the consumers do not have to suffer.
Speaking of consumers Read about the newest consumer electronics coming this year.
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