India’s legal Davids taking on trillion-dollar tech firms

For nearly two weeks between December and January, a quiet courtroom in New Delhi became the setting for a fierce legal challenge—one that laid bare the glaring mismatch in profile and resources between Big Tech and those challenging it in India. 

On one side of this battle, which played out at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), was Google. Represented by senior advocates Sajan Poovayya and Ritin Rai, and backed by the top brass of law firm Chandiok Mahajan, Google was appealing against a 2022 decision of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) that found it guilty of abusing its dominant position to promote its app store. 

On the other side, CCI was represented by a smaller group of lawyers. Former Additional Solicitor General Balbir Singh argued the matter and was helped by independent competition lawyers Samar Bansal and Manu Chaturvedi, who did the groundwork.  

The tribunal ultimately partially upheld CCI’s findings, confirming that Google had indeed leveraged its dominance unfairly. However, it dismissed the claim that Google denied market access to payment aggregators. It ended up significantly slashing the penalty from ₹936 crore to ₹216 crore—basing it on the “relevant turnover” or revenues from Google Play, rather than from the company as a whole.