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Google Faces Up To $5 Billion Fine From Competition Commission of India

Posted by timothy on from the so-I-was-just-counting-your-governments dept.

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.'"

7 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  2. Theft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seems like theft to me.

    Google has lots of money, let's fine Google.

  3. I still can't figure out what they did by Overzeetop · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I read the entire fine article, and I'm still at a loss. What was the specific harm which the Indian government is trying to correct?

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    1. Re:I still can't figure out what they did by Brett+Buck · · Score: 5, Funny

      The harm that Google has $5 billion that they want.

    2. Re:I still can't figure out what they did by tomhath · · Score: 5, Interesting
      It's not the Indian government. The complaint was filed by an organization called CUTS, whose mission is:

      Pursuing economic equity and social justice within and across borders by persuading governments and empowering people

      In other words, their goal is wealth transfer from rich to poor countries. Whether Google did anything wrong isn't the point; they're trying to use the Indian government to get some of Google's money.

  4. Re:yeah right by davester666 · · Score: 5, Informative

    "India's competition regime does not have provisions for settlement process"

    more like
    "India's competition regime does not have provisions for settlement process written into the law"

    There does seem to be a private method for making agreements between companies and gov't officials that is the accepted practice in India.

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  5. Re:Indian Hypocrisy by mmell · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.