India’s antitrust watchdog has fined Google $162 million for alleged anti-competitive practices on Android devices

India’s Competition Commission (ICC) said today that it is fining Google $162 million for abusing its dominant position in the Android ecosystem, which has had a negative impact on its competitors. In a statement released Thursday, the agency said that Google has taken multiple actions that have stifled competition and innovation. It has abused its position to protect its search engine and digital payments apps.<br><br>Google neither allowed nor envisaged any “preinstallation” of any rival search engines nor any of its applications along with Google Search. It also excluded complete access of its applications suite by any other application invoked by the rival search engines, and any rival search service invoking play store or Google play services.<br><br>Google neither allowed nor envisaged its “pre-installation” along with the pre-installation of any rival search engines, or any of its applications along with the pre-installation of any of the rival search services. It also excluded complete access to its applications suite by any rival search engine, and any rival search service invoking play store or Google play services.<br><br>It has also been alleged that Google has not allowed the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to develop any rival operating system, and complete access to its suite of applications by any of the rival applications invoking Google play store, and any of the rival applications invoked by the rival search services.