Slashdot Mirror
Google Faces Up To $5 Billion Fine From Competition Commission of India
An anonymous reader writes "Google is facing investigation by the Competition Commission of India and potentially faces fines up to 10% of its three-year average turnover. While Google has settled anti-trust cases in the U.S. and the European Union, India's competition regime does not have provisions for settlement process." From the Times of India article linked: "The complaint against Google, also one of the world's most valued company, was first filed by advocacy group CUTS International way back in late 2011. Later, matrimonial website matrimony.com also filed a complaint. Referring to Google's settlement with the European Commission, matrimony.com counsel Ferida Satarawala said: 'Google's unfair use of trademarks as well as its retaliatory conduct are not specifically addressed in the European settlement and are distinct theories of harm being pursued by the CCI. Therefore, this settlement is unlikely to address CCI's concerns in our case.'"
Seems like theft to me.
Google has lots of money, let's fine Google.
Just to get the cart back behind the horse - let's see if the Indian judicial system can work this out correctly. There seems to be an assumption here that India's judicial system is little better than a star-chamber mechanism dispensing kangaroo-court justice. While I'll admit there may be strong political and financial incentives for an Indian court to arbitrarily find Google liable, there's no reason to believe that the Indian courts will fail to correctly perform their function of interpreting and adjudicating Indian law.