The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday granted a request from Alphabet Inc. and Google to redact specific sections of its recent judgment concerning the Google Play Store billing case. The contested paragraphs, according to Google, contained sensitive revenue information, as per a report by Bar and bench.
A two-member NCLAT bench, comprising Chairperson Justice (retd) Ashok Bhushan and Technical Member Barun Mitra, issued a directive to remove paragraphs 97 through 100 from the judgment copy currently available on the NCLAT website. This redaction will also be applied to all future certified copies of the ruling.
The NCLAT’s decision follows its partial upholding last month of the Competition Commission of India (CCI)’s findings that Google had abused its dominant position through its Play Store billing policies. While the appellate tribunal upheld the CCI’s findings of anti-competitive practices, it significantly reduced the penalty imposed on Google from ₹936.44 crore to ₹216 crore.
The CCI had initially penalized Google in October 2022 for allegedly forcing app developers to exclusively use its proprietary billing system for paid applications and in-app purchases, while notably exempting its own applications like YouTube. The competition watchdog deemed this practice discriminatory and anti-competitive, instructing Google to permit developers to integrate third-party billing systems.
Following the NCLAT’s judgment in March, Google swiftly filed an interlocutory application seeking the redaction of particular paragraphs. The tech giant argued that these sections reproduced extracts from a confidential letter dated October 6, 2022, which contained revenue data previously submitted to the CCI. Google contended that while the CCI had maintained the confidentiality of this document, excerpts had been directly quoted within the NCLAT’s judgment.
The NCLAT bench concurred with Google’s argument, stating, “We find substance in the submission of the applicant. Paragraphs 97 to 100 of the judgment extract part of the confidential letter 06.10.2022, hence to maintain confidentiality, we allow the prayers in the application.”
Google was represented in the matter by advocates Karan Chandhiok, Tarun Donadi, and Bhavika Chhabra from the law firm Chandhiok and Mahajan. The respondents were represented by advocates Vivek Pandey, Biyanka Bhatia, and Shreya Kapoor from Sarvada Legal.
This decision by the NCLAT highlights the ongoing legal battle between Google and Indian regulatory authorities over its Play Store billing practices and underscores the importance of protecting confidential business information within judicial proceedings.