We know that Google just wrapped its annual developer conference, Google I/O 2019 recently. At the event, Google announced some exciting new features coming to smartphones and PCs. However, Google is also caught up in fresh trouble thanks to regulators in India.
As we know, Google has already been handed multiple fines from regulators in the EU for anti-trust violations for all sorts of services. But apart from the EU, Google has not been handed fines as often.
This might change soon as Google is already being investigated by the Indian regulators as it is using its dominant position to beat rivals in the country. Now, this is the second instance when Indian regulators are investigating Google for the same.
Earlier, Google’s investigation from Indian regulators was against Google Search from the company. But this time, Indian regulators are accusing Google of killing its competition thanks to Android, its own operating system.
Prior to this, Google has already been handed a fine of $5 Billion from the EU for the same complaint against Android. In India, it could also see a fine of billions of dollars if the same has been proved right.
This investigation is carried out against Google by India’s Competition Commission of India. CCI, in its earlier investigation, fined Rs. 1.36 billion against ‘search bias’ against Google. Now, the same could be repeated for Google’s Android too.
Also, it is ruled that the extent of fine should not be more than 10% of the total revenue of the company annually. Last time around, Google was fined 5% of its annual revenue in India but it was in 2018.
Since then, the company’s revenue has increased by 30% so we should expect to see an even bigger fine on Google handed this time around. Also, Google is totally expected to appeal the fine in court and we will have to wait and watch how everything pans out.