CCI to NCLAT: Google created data hegemony

NEW DELHI: Fair trade regulator CCI on Thursday alleged that Google has created a digital data hegemony and called for a market space with “free, fair and open competition”.

Concluding the arguments of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) before the appellate tribunal NCLAT in the Google matter, Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman said a market with greater freedom for all players would be in total sync with principles of free competition rather than the ‘walled garden’ approach of the internet major.

On October 20 last year, the CCI slapped a penalty of Rs 1,337.76 crore on Google for anti-competitive practices in relation to Android mobile devices. The regulator had also ordered the internet major to cease and desist from various unfair business practices.

This ruling has been challenged before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).

On Thursday, Venkataraman submitted that Google had used its money-spinning search engine as the ‘castle’ and the rest of the other apps to play the defensive role of ‘moat’. This ‘castle and moat’ strategy is data hegemony, which means a big market player tends to get bigger and bigger while a small entrant struggles to attain a critical mass of users and user data. As per him, data capture and data deployment are getting exploited and monetised as advertisement revenues.