CCI denies Apple’s request to put antitrust report on hold
India’s antitrust agency has rejected a request from Apple to halt an investigative report that found the company had violated competition laws, allowing the case to proceed, according to an internal order from the regulator seen by Reuters.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered a recall of investigative reports in August after Apple said the watchdog had revealed commercial secrets to competitors in the case dating back to 2021, including Tinder owner Match. These elements should have been redacted.
The CCI had asked the parties to return the reports and destroy any copies. The regulator subsequently issued new reports.
The CCI’s internal order revealed that Apple alleged in November that the lead complainant in the antitrust investigation – the Indian non-profit organization Together We Fight Society (TWFS) – had failed to follow guidelines to provide assurances that the old investigation reports had been destroyed.
Apple asked the CCI “to take action against TWFS for non-compliance with its order” and “to withhold the revised report,” the November 13 CCI order, seen by Reuters, showed.
“Apple’s request to suspend the investigation report was held to be untenable,” the CCI said in the order.
Apple did not respond to questions from Reuters.
The CCI did not respond outside regular business hours on Sunday. Calls to TWFS representatives went unanswered.
A CCI investigation had found that Apple was exploiting its dominant position in the app store market on its iOS operating system to the detriment of app developers, users and other payment processors.
Apple has denied the allegations and says it is a small player in India where phones using Google’s Android system are dominant.
The CCI’s internal order also revealed that Apple has been asked to submit its audited financial statements for financial years 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 under regulatory guidelines aimed at determining possible monetary penalties in the case .
The senior officials of the CCI will review the investigation report and make a final ruling on the case.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
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