The Competition Commission of India (CCI) recently dismissed a complaint against Google India, alleging that the tech giant favored Truecaller, a caller ID and spam protection app. The complaint, filed by Rachna Khaira, accused Google of granting exclusive access to Truecaller to share private contact information, creating a monopoly for the app. Khaira also claimed that Google’s developer policy prohibited sharing non-public contacts, while Truecaller’s privacy policy allowed it.
However, after a thorough review, the CCI found no evidence of any violation of competition law. The regulator stated that there was no prima facie case of contravention of Section 4 of the Act against Google in this matter. The CCI concluded that Khaira’s claims were unsubstantiated and lacked evidence to prove that Google was granting preferential treatment to Truecaller or engaging in discriminatory practices.
The order clarified that mere business relations between Google and Truecaller did not imply preferential treatment unless proven otherwise. The CCI found that the whistleblower had not provided sufficient evidence to establish that Google was favoring Truecaller due to business deals involving Google’s advertising and cloud storage services. Therefore, the allegations against Google were deemed baseless by the CCI.
Overall, the CCI’s ruling dismissed the complaint against Google India and stated that there was no evidence to support the claims made by Khaira. The regulator did not find any violation of competition law and concluded that Google had not engaged in anti-competitive practices as alleged by the whistleblower. The decision highlights the importance of providing substantial evidence to support claims of anti-competitive behavior in the market.
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https://www.pymnts.com/cpi-posts/indian-watchdog-dismisses-allegations-of-google-abusing-dominant-position-to-favor-truecaller/
