New Delhi: Google has withdrawn its Supreme Court appeal against the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal order that refused interim relief to the company when it came to complying with directions of the Competition Commission of India on alleged attempts to dominate the market with its Play Store.

The decision to withdraw comes as the NCLAT is already hearing the matter. An apex court bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud announced on April 17 that the appeals stands dismissed.

The CCI has issued two rulings against Google, both imposing huge fines on the tech company. In October 2022, the CCI had penalised Google Rs 936 crore for restricting app developers from using any third party billing or payment processing services when inside the Google Play Store. It also issued a slew of directions.

Business Standard has reported that in its judgement, CCI marked Google's policies on the mandatory use of Google Play Billing System (GPBS) for paid apps and in-app purchases as "an unfair condition on app developers."

In January, Google appealed to both the Supreme Court and the NCLAT against the order. The latter refused to grant Google interim relief and asked it to deposit 10% of the total penalty of Rs 1,337.76 crore penalty with the CCI.

On March 29, NCLAT had upheld the penalty the CCI had imposed on Google.

It had, however, quashed directives that had to do with pre-installed Google apps on Android devices and also forced it to allow individual app store developers to distribute their app store through the Google Play Store.

The NCLAT is expected to hear the matter this week and has transferred the case to the chairperson's court, a person familiar with the matter told Business Standard.

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