India antitrust body denies Google's allegation it copied EU's Android order

India antitrust body denies Google's allegation it copied EU's Android order

Technology

India antitrust body denies Google's allegation it copied EU's Android order

(Reuters) - India s competition regulator on Thursday denied allegations by Google that investigators copied parts of a European order while ruling against the US firm for abusing the market dominance of its Android platform.

"We have not cut, copy and paste," N Venkataraman, a government lawyer representing the Competition Commission of India (CCI), told the top court.

The comments came at a hearing in India s Supreme Court, where Google is seeking to block the CCI ruling.

The body fined Alphabet Inc-owned (GOOGL.O) Google $161 million for exploiting its dominant position in Android, which powers 97% of smartphones in India, and asked it to change restrictions imposed on smartphone makers related to pre-installing apps.

Google had challenged the directive saying it would hurt consumers and also its business, warning the growth of the Android ecosystem will stall if the far-reaching measures were to be implemented.