Google case: Competition Commission of India needs time to take final decision

Competition Commission of India (CCI), that received a detailed probe report on the case related to alleged unfair business practices of Internet major Google in India, will take "sometime" to take final decision over it.

The fair trade regulator has received the probe report from its investigation arm director general, reported PTI.

On being asked about the status of Google case, CCI Chairman Ashok Chawla said on Friday that it would take sometime to take a final decision.

He said: "The process is fairly lengthy, it is a quasi judicial process. We have to hear the parties involved and then decide. It will take quite sometime."

The fair trade regulator, which first received a complaint against Google back in 2011, has been looking into allegations that the company abused its dominant position in the search engine space for well over three years.

The main allegations against the major search engine are that it favours its own products in search results and resorts to discrimination by favouring paid searches.

Other allegations include denial of access to content and imposing of unfair and discriminatory conditions on 'AdWords' customers.

Under competition regulations, an entity found violating the norms could be slapped with penalty of up to 10% of its three-year annual average turnover.

In its annual report for the year ended December 2014, Google had mentioned about anti-trust investigations in India.

According to the report, the Comision Nacional de Defensa de la Competencia in Argentina, the Competition Commission of India, the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission, Brazil's Council for Economic Defense and the Canadian Competition Bureau have started investigations against the company.

(Image: Indiatimes)