Young Informants Made Tech Giant Cough Up Rs 1,338 Crore Fine

Three young informants, Aaqib, Umar Javeed, and Sukarma Thapar, finally forced Google to pay a whopping fine of Rs 1,338 crore for abusing its dominant position in multiple markets with its Android O.S (operating system).

As Umar Javeed and Sukarma Thapar worked as research associates at the CCI, Umar's younger brother Aaqib was studying law at the University of Kashmir. The 3 young informants are all lawyers now.

The Valley is home to Umar and Aaqib. Three young informants complained in 2018 that Google abused its dominant position in multiple markets.

“We can look at an Android phone and say there are some Google-owned apps that cannot be deleted even if we wanted to, but besides that, as consumers, we have little information on how exactly Android smartphone manufacturers and app developers are affected by the role Google plays in the Android ecosystem,” he explained.

Compiling a comprehensive dossier of information was not easy and took about 2 months.

Events related to Google in Europe caught the trio’s attention. “In July 2018, the European Commission (the EU’s competition watchdog) imposed one of its largest fines on Google of 4.34 billion Euros for violating EU antitrust rules,” Umar said.

The CCI launched an investigation into Google's conduct in the Android mobile device ecosystem in April 2019 based on the information submitted by the 3 informants, which resulted in the October 20 judgment and fine.

Thanks to the whistle blown by these 3 informants, CCI has now tightened its noose around other big tech companies like Apple and Facebook after European and Australian regulators hauled them up.