Alphabet's Google sued the Competition Commission of India
(CCI) at a New Delhi court last week, urging a judge to direct the watchdog to
prevent leaks of information.
The filing came after The Times of India and Reuters
reported this month, citing a confidential CCI report, that the regulator's
probe had found that the US tech giant abused the dominant position of its
Android operating system in India, unfairly using its "huge financial
muscle" to hurt competitors.
Google, in its 188-page court filing seen by Reuters, said
it was aggrieved by the CCI's rejection of its request, made before the media
reports, that "highly business sensitive information" it had provided
to the regulator during the course of the investigation be kept confidential.
On Monday, Justice Rekha Palli said the CCI had agreed to
accept Google's request to keep its submissions confidential, without
elaborating on the details of the agreement between the watchdog and the
company.
If Google "still has a grievance that any information
is being leaked", it can seek legal recourse, Justice Palli added.
However the justice said CCI had rejected as untrue Google's
allegations that it had leaked any information to the media.
Google and the CCI did not immediately respond to requests
for comment.
On Friday, in a near hour-long showdown in court, Google had
called the CCI a "habitual offender" in terms of leaking confidential
information. The watchdog's counsel repeatedly denied the allegations, and
accused the US company of frustrating the investigative process.
Google's filing to the court, reviewed by Reuters, said the
publication of the investigation report's findings caused "irreversible
damage" to its reputation.
The CCI ordered the competition probe in 2019, saying Google
appeared to have leveraged its dominance to reduce device makers' ability to
opt for alternate versions of its mobile operating system, and to force them to
pre-install Google apps.
Reuters reported on September 18, citing the confidential
CCI report, that the watchdog had found the mandatory pre-installation of apps
on Android devices "amounts to imposition of unfair conditions on the
device manufacturers" in violation of India's competition law. © Reuters