Google Settles Android TV Case With Competition Commission.

 This is the first case that has been settled under the amended Competition Act, wherein the settlement and committment provisions were introduced in 2023.

Technology major Google on Monday settled with the Competition Commission a nearly four-year-old case related to alleged unfair business practices with respect to Android Smart TV market and has agreed to modify its agreement with vendors.

This is the first case that has been settled under the amended Competition Act, wherein the settlement and committment provisions were introduced in 2023.

In the nearly four-year-old case, Google proposed settlement, including a modified agreement with the vendors that would address anti-competitive concerns and also paid a settlement amount of Rs 20.24 crore.

The settlement order on Monday also came at a time when US Vice President J D Vance started his four-day India visit. Also, India is hoping to reach an agreement with the US within the 90-day pause on steep tariffs announced by President Donald Trump.The Commission considered the settlement proposal and observed that under the 'New India Agreement', Google will provide a standalone licence for the Play Store and Play Services for Android smart TVs in India, thereby removing the requirement to bundle these services or impose default placement conditions.

"Additionally, by waiving the need for a valid Android Compatibility Commitments (ACC) for devices shipped into India that do not include Google apps, OEMs can now sell and develop incompatible Android devices without violating the Television App Distribution Agreement (TADA)," the regulator said in a release on Monday.Earlier also, Google had come under the scanner of CCI where the latter passed orders with respect to Android OS and Play Store billing matters. Two more cases against Google -- one related to digital news publshers/adtech and another on alleged excessive Play Store billing -- are currently being probed by the regulator.

In June 2021, CCI had ordered a detailed investigation into the case after concluding that there was prima facie evidence of competition law violations.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chhorii 2 Review: Nushrratt Bharuccha Makes Her Presence Felt

  CAST: Nushrratt Bharuccha, Soha Ali Khan, Hardika Mehta & Gashmeer Mahajan Director Vishal Furia made the Marathi film Lapachhapi back in 2017 and remade it in Hindi as Chhorii (2021). It was headlined by Nushrratt Bharuccha. Despite being a far from perfect horror film, it did give us the required chills. In Chhorii, Sakshi (Nushrratt Bharuccha) is taken to a lonely place by her husband when she's heavily pregnant. She keeps seeing visions of small girls and later learns that her husband has brought her here to sacrifice her child if it turns out to be a female. Guided by ghosts, she somehow makes her escape. Chhorii 2 is set seven years later. Sakshi now has a kid Ishaani (Hardika Sharma), who suffers from a rare skin disorder in the sense that she can't bear to be out in direct sunlight. Guess what, Ishaani gets abducted and Sakshi and her policeman friend Samar (Gashmeer Mahajani) trace her back to the same village where Sakshi had escaped from earlier. She's to b...
Read more

When 'Buddha finally smiled': How India carried its first nuclear test as a 'peaceful explosion'

  The Buddha has smiled," Dr  Raja Ramanna , director of India's nuclear program and led India's first nuclear test, had reportedly said to the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after the nation entered the elite group.  On May 18, 1974, India became the sixth country to carry out its first nuclear test, catching United States and other nations off-guard. A nuclear device was detonated in Rajasthan, near Pokhran, and the operation was code-named  Smiling Buddha . On the morning of May 18, 1974, a nuclear device was detonated in the Rajasthan desert near Pokhran, India. This event came as a shock to the entire world. Work on a nuclear fission device had been authorized by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on September 7, 1972.  A select team of around 75 scientists and engineers from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) undertook the secret mission to design and develop India’s first atomic bomb. The result was  Pokhran-I , an underground nuclear test ...
Read more

Mrs. Movie Review: A stinging satire on patriarchy

  CAST: Sanya Malhotra, Nishant Dahiya, Kanwaljit, Varun Badola, Loveleen Mishra Mrs. revisits the themes of patriarchal oppression and domestic drudgery explored in The Great Indian Kitchen. While Jeo Baby’s 2021 Malayalam film was raw and immersive, almost documentary-like in its portrayal of the exhausting, repetitive nature of "women’s work," Mrs. doesn’t suffocate you in the same way. The Great Indian Kitchen was unwatchable at times because of the horror it slowly emanated. You wanted to run away from it. Mrs. doesn't hit you quite that hard. Arati Kadav’s direction makes it more accessible to a mainstream audience while retaining the core message. In Mrs., for instance, the scenes depicting the pariah-like attitude towards the new bride during the days she’s on her period are almost normalised. The humiliation that the protagonist felt in the Malayalam original is toned down.  What director Arati Kadav has done differently is that from a teacher, she has turned the...
Read more