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Google has abused Android’s dominance in India to illegally harm competitors in the world’s second largest internet market, a two-year antitrust investigation by the country’s watchdog has revealed.
The Android maker has slashed the ability and incentive for device manufacturing companies to develop – and sell – devices running alternate versions of Android (more commonly known as forks), the survey found, according to two people who were informed of the results.
Additionally, the report found that Google’s requirement to force device makers to preinstall its apps was in violation of Indian competition law.
More than five dozen companies, including Amazon and Apple, responded to questions from the Indian watchdog – India’s Competition Commission – during the investigation, according to the report.
The Indian watchdog has also found problems with the way Google has applied the policies on the Play Store, saying they are “one-sided, ambiguous, vague, biased and arbitrary”.
Google said it was eager to engage with ICC to demonstrate how “Android has led to more competition and innovation, not less.”
The report’s findings – which have yet to be officially released by ICC – are Google’s latest setback in India, where it faces several other antitrust investigations and daggers from a growing number of startups, founders and daggers. national investors.
The Alliance of Digital India Foundation, a group of 350 startups, founders and investors, welcomed the findings of the ICC report and said the watchdog approach “is in line with the needs of the Indian digital ecosystem.”
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