Google settles 4-year-old antitrust case over Android TV practices

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has formally approved the settlement of Google’s four-year-old case, involving anti-competitive practices in the Android Smart TV market. Google has agreed to revise its agreement with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and pay Rs 20.24 crore as a settlement amount.

“The Competition Commission of India (Commission), in terms of Section 48A (3) of the Competition Act, 2002 (the 'Act'), and the Competition Commission of India (Settlement) Regulations, 2024 (‘Settlement Regulations’), vide majority order, has agreed to the Settlement Proposal of Google in the Android TV case,” said CCI.

This is the first case to be settled under CCI’s Competition Act.

The competition watchdog had earlier held Google responsible for misusing its strong position in the Android TV market by forcing TV makers to pre-install its apps, if they wanted access to its services.

The case was filed after two anti-trust lawyers, Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand, under Section 19(1)(a) of the Act, 2002 against Google LLC, Google India Private Limited, Xiaomi Technology India Private Limited and TCL India Holding Private Limited alleged contravention of various provisions of the Act by Google.

The investigation found that Google's Android Smart TV system is the main one used in India for Smart TVs that can be licensed. It also found that the Google Play Store is the main app store for these TVs.

Google made companies sign two agreements — the Television App Distribution Agreement (TADA) and the Android Compatibility Commitments (ACC). These agreements had unfair rules. They forced TV makers to install a full set of Google apps (called Google TV Services), stopped them from creating or using their own versions of Android, and limited new ideas.

These rules applied to all of a company’s devices and made things like YouTube and the Play Store come as a bundle, which helped Google stay in control of the market. This broke some parts of the competition law (Section 4).

However, the investigation didn’t find enough proof that Google refused to work with others or limited supply (as claimed under Section 3(4)).

Google has offered to change how it operates in India as part of the settlement. Instead of app bundling, Google will offer a separate licence for Play Store and Play Services for Android TVs but with a fee.