The Supreme Court on Monday asked Google whether it will put in place the same regime in India as it has in Europe relating to the pre-installed apps in Android-based mobile phones.

A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala asked the US tech giant Google to state its position on the issue, after Additional Solicitor General of India N Venkataraman, told the court that Google was adopting different standards in Europe and India and had complied with a similar order passed by the European Commission.

Appearing for the Competition Commission of India (CCI), Venkataraman asked how Google search engine can discriminate between the customers in India and those in Europe by having two different regimes.

“We are going to show some shocking data. Their grievance that they are unable to comply with the order within 90 days doesn’t stand because they’re fully complying with the order passed in 2016 in the European Union. Euro 4 billion fully paid by them. All these directions have been totally compiled within Europe for the past five years. Standing committee is now going into this, this will now be the part of digital law. The European Union has already held them to be dominant. We are a third world country” the ASG Venkataraman told the bench.

However, senior advocate Abhishek Manu disputed it saying that the CCI had misrepresented the facts and that compliance in Europe was pertaining to MADA unbundling.

Singhvi appeared for Google India.

Posting the matter for further hearing on January 18, the bench, in a poser to Google, asked “Will Google practice the same regime in India as you have it in Europe? Please reflect on this and come back.”

The apex court is hearing an appeal of Google India against the order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), refusing to stay a Rs 1,337.76 crore penalty imposed on the technology giant by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for alleged anti-competitive practices.

NCLAT by its January 4, 2023, order had said that the CCI order was passed in October 2022, while the appeal by Google was filed only in December 2022 and hence, no case for interim relief was made out.

Since no urgency was shown in filing the appeal, Google could not be allowed to insist on interim relief, the Tribunal had said.

NCLAT is an appellate authority over the CCI and any order passed by market regulator is appealable before the NCLAT.

NCLAT has also directed Google to deposit 10 percent of the Rs. 1337.76 crore fine amount within three weeks.

The CCI had, in October 2022, imposed the penalty on Google for abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem and also directed Google to cease and desist from participating in anti-competitive practices.