According to reports, India’s Deputy Information Technology Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said today that the Indian government plans to take action against Google’s monopoly in the next few weeks.
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Last October, India’s antitrust watchdog, the Competition Commission (CCI), fined Google $275 million in two antitrust cases.
In one case, the CCI fined Google $160 million for accusing it of abusing its Android ecosystem. In another case, Google was accused of abusing its dominant position in the app store market to promote its own payment system. For this, CCI fined Google an additional $115 million.
In this regard, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in an interview with the media today that these actions of Google are “very serious” and have aroused the “deep concern” of the Indian federal government. To that end, the federal government will take its own action against Google.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar said: “The Ministry of Information Technology must act. We have considered it carefully and will make it public in the next few weeks. In short, we will not let it go.”
But Rajeev Chandrasekhar did not say what policy or regulatory action would be taken. Rajeev Chandrasekhar also said: “These issues are worrying, not only for us, but also for the entire Indian digital ecosystem.”
Google has yet to comment on this.
In addition to Google, technology giants such as Apple and Amazon have also been investigated by Indian regulators for potentially anti-competitive behaviour. Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the government is keen to take steps to ensure India’s digital economy is protected.
“We don’t want the development of these businesses to distort consumer choice or free competition. We will certainly assess what the government should do to prevent anyone from abusing their market dominance, including but not limited to Google,” he said.
