CCI Dismisses Abuse of Dominance Allegations Against Google Over Play Store Account Termination

CCI Dismisses Abuse of Dominance Allegations Against Google Over Play Store Account Termination

Introduction

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has dismissed allegations of abuse of dominance against Alphabet Inc, Google LLC, and Google India Private Limited. The case was filed by Liberty Infospace Pvt Ltd, which alleged that Google unilaterally terminated its Play Store developer account without notice or specific reasons.

Factual Background

Liberty Infospace developed an app called EasyDo Tasks-HRMS Payroll AI and had its developer account terminated by Google in June 2024. Liberty alleged that the termination was in violation of Google's Developer Distribution Agreement and enforcement policies and constituted abuse of dominance.

Issues

1.  Whether Google abused its dominant position by terminating Liberty's Play Store developer account?
2.  Whether Google's actions were in violation of the Competition Act, 2002?

Contentions of the Parties

Liberty's Contentions: Liberty alleged that Google's termination of its account was arbitrary, violated its own policies, and deprived small developers of market access.

Google's Contention: Google argued that Liberty's account was terminated due to its Relation Ban Policy, which prohibits association with previously terminated accounts. Google claimed that Liberty's account had strong connections with a terminated "malware seed account" linked to Liberty's CTO, Daksh Sh Sanghvi.

Reasoning and Analysis

The bench of Ms. Ravneet Kaur (Chairperson) Mr. Anil Agrawal (Member) Ms. Sweta Kakkad (Member) Mr. Deepak Anurag (Member) defined the relevant market as the "market for app stores for Android OS in India" and reiterated its earlier findings that Google Play Store enjoys a dominant position. However, the Commission found no evidence of abusive conduct by Google, noting that Liberty's claims were contradicted by publicly available information. The CCI accepted Google's explanation for its appeals process and found that the termination of Liberty's account was consistent with Google's policies.

Decision

The CCI held that no prima facie case of abuse of dominance was made out and closed the case under Section 26(2) of the Competition Act, 2002. The Commission rejected Liberty's request for interim relief and disposed of its applications.

Implications

The judgment highlights the importance of complying with platform policies and the need for developers to ensure that their accounts are not linked to previously terminated accounts. It also underscores the CCI's approach to evaluating abuse of dominance claims and the balance between platform policies and developer rights.