Indian Watchdog Dismisses Allegations of Google Abusing Dominant Position to Favor Truecaller

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has dismissed a complaint against Google India, which alleged that the tech giant abused its dominant position to favor Truecaller in the market for caller ID and spam protection apps. The CCI found no evidence of any violation of competition law.

In a detailed ruling, the fair trade regulator stated, “The Commission finds that no prima facie case of contravention of the provisions of Section 4 of the Act is made out against Google in the instant matter.” The complaint, filed by Rachna Khaira, accused Google of granting exclusive access to Truecaller for sharing private contact information while prohibiting other apps from doing the same. Khaira argued that this practice distorted the market and created a monopoly for Truecaller.

Khaira further alleged that Google’s developer policy prohibits the unauthorized disclosure of non-public contacts, while Truecaller’s privacy policy allows for such sharing. She also claimed that Google favored Truecaller due to commercial arrangements involving Google’s cloud storage and advertising services.

Read more: Google Accuses India’s Competition Commission of Protecting Amazon

After a thorough review of submissions from both Google and Khaira, the CCI concluded that the informant’s claims were unsubstantiated. The CCI’s order stated, “…the allegation of the Informant remains unsubstantiated and despite sufficient opportunity, the informant has not provided any evidence to prima facie establish that Google is according either preferential treatment to Truecaller or resorting to discriminatory practices by allowing access to user’s contact data to Truecaller while denying the same to competing applications.”

Additionally, the India addressed the allegations regarding commercial relationships between Google and Truecaller, clarifying that mere commercial relationships do not imply preferential treatment unless proven.

Source: Business Standard