Apple contests India's antitrust penalty law with risk of $38 billion fine, filing shows

By Aditya Kalra and Arpan Chaturvedi

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Apple is challenging India's caller antitrust punishment instrumentality nether which the U.S. institution could perchance look a good of up to $38 billion, a tribunal filing astatine the ​Delhi High Court, seen by Reuters, shows.

The situation is the archetypal against India's antitrust punishment instrumentality that since past twelvemonth ‌allows the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to usage planetary turnover erstwhile calculating the penalties it imposes connected companies for abusing their marketplace dominance.

Since 2022, Tinder-owner Match and Indian ‌startups person been locked successful an antitrust conflict with Apple astatine the CCI, wherever investigators past twelvemonth issued a study saying the U.S. smartphone institution had engaged successful "abusive conduct" connected the apps marketplace of its iPhone Operating System, iOS.

Apple denied each wrongdoing, and the CCI is yet to marque a last determination successful the case, including astir immoderate penalty.

The institution is asking judges to state arsenic amerciable the 2024 instrumentality that allowed the CCI to ⁠use planetary turnover, not conscionable that successful India, ‌when calculating penalties, according to its 545-page tribunal filing, which is not public.

Apple's "maximum punishment exposure" astatine the complaint of 10% of its mean planetary turnover derived from each of its services globally for ‍three fiscal years to 2024 could beryllium astir $38 billion, it said successful the filing.

Such a "penalty based connected planetary turnover...would beryllium manifestly arbitrary, unconstitutional, grossly disproportionate, unjust," it added.

Apple and the CCI did not respond to requests for comment.

Companies besides hazard fines of arsenic overmuch arsenic 10% of ​their planetary turnover for antitrust violations successful the European Union.

RETROSPECTIVE IMPOSITION

Apple cited the CCI's usage of the caller rules for the archetypal clip ‌on November 10 successful an unrelated case, wherever they were retrospectively applied to a usurpation by the affected institution a decennary earlier.

Apple has "no prime but to bring this law situation present to debar retrospective imposition of punishment against them," it argued.

The institution has maintained it is simply a tiny subordinate compared to Google's Android, which is the ascendant subordinate successful the Indian market.

Apple's smartphone basal has, however, go 4 times larger successful the past 5 years successful India, according to Counterpoint Research.

APPLE CITES STATIONERY, TOYS EXAMPLE

The CCI recovered past twelvemonth that Apple was not permitting ⁠any third-party outgo processor to supply services for in-app purchases, wherever the interest ​could beryllium up to 30%.

In a backstage submission to the CCI, reported by ​Reuters successful October, Apple hostile Match argued a good based connected planetary turnover could "act arsenic a important deterrent against recidivism".