Apple Under Antitrust Scrutiny by Indian Watchdog

India’s competitions watchdog, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), is launching an investigation into Apple’s business practices for the alleged abuse of its dominant market position in the Indian app market, violating antitrust laws. 

This move comes after a non-profit group, “Together We Fight Society,” accused the tech giant of forcing app developers to abide by its in-app fee system, driving up developers’ cost by pushing a 30 percent fee for using their distribution platform, thus hurting overall competition, and dominating non-licensable mobile operating systems. 

“The Commission at this stage is convinced that a prima facie case is made out against Apple which merits investigation,” the CCI said. 

Apple did not respond to this comment but urged that regulators disregard the case, denying the allegation and citing that their market share in the country was “insignificant,” less than 5 percent, they told Reuters. 

However, the CCI rebutted that the wrap case against the company has nothing to do with their market share in India but more about the anti-competitive nature of their business practices regardless of their influence or size in the market.  

The CCI aims to complete their investigations and derive a full report within 60 days, which should draw a conclusive decision that would otherwise take several months. 

Similar investigations are being conducted against Google’s in-app payment system as part of an enormous scope of antitrust probes to address the concerns of Indian startups voiced in the previous year.