India: The central government plans to take action against Alphabet Inc’s Google after its antitrust watchdog last year found the group to have abused its market position by indulging in anti-competitive practices, the junior IT minister told Reuters.
India’s antitrust body in October fined Google $275 million in two cases, which involved abusing its dominant position in the Android operating system market, and pushing developers to use its in-app payment system.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the minister of state for information technology, told Reuters in an interview at the IT ministry in New Delhi that such findings are “serious” and cause “deep concern” to the government, which will take its own action against Google.
The minister declined to specify what sort of policy or regulatory action the government could take.
Mr Chandrasekhar said the issue “is worrisome, not just for us, it’s worrisome for the entire digital ecosystem in India”.
Google did not respond to a request for comment on the minister’s remarks. Asked if he had held talks with Google on the issue, Mr Chandrasekhar said “there is no need for any discussion. There is a finding of a court.”
