The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is examining a complaint claiming that search giant Google abused its dominant market position in smart television operating systems, reported LiveMint.
Antitrust lawyers Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand filed the complaint with CCI in the first week of June.
“If a TV manufacturer intends to use Google’s operating system, you have to enter into certain agreements. These agreements prohibit you from manufacturing any other device, whether it is televisions, phones, etc., on any forked version of Android,” the person said. Forked Android refers to operating systems based on Android, like Amazon’s Fire TV OS.
This means a company using the AndroidTV platform cannot just choose to make TVs on other Android-based platforms, but also has to make phones and other devices, on Google’s platform. The person said Google is using the dominance of Android to create a monopoly in smart TVs as well.
Chinese smartphone and TV maker Xiaomi and TV maker TCL have also been named as parties in the case, since they also manufacture products on the Android platform. Google did not respond to an email, while Xiaomi and TCL declined to comment.
The Competition Commission of India will seek comments from Google and other parties only after it launches a formal probe.
Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.
