The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has directed the removal of confidential revenue information submitted by Google from its Play Store case judgment. This decision comes after Alphabet Inc. and Google Inc. filed a plea requesting the redaction of specific paragraphs in the tribunal’s ruling, citing concerns over the disclosure of sensitive financial data.
The case revolves around Google’s app store billing policy, which the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had previously ruled as unfair and restrictive for developers. On March 28, the NCLAT upheld the CCI’s findings but reduced the penalty imposed on Google from ₹936.44 crore to ₹216.69 crore. However, the judgment included excerpts from a confidential letter dated October 6, 2022, containing Google’s revenue details, which the company argued should remain private.
A bench comprising Chairperson Justice Ashok Bhushan and Member Barun Mitra reviewed Google’s plea and agreed that maintaining confidentiality was necessary. As a result, the tribunal ordered that paragraphs 97 to 100 of the judgment be redacted from both the public version and certified copies of the ruling. Additionally, the redacted version of the judgment will be uploaded on the NCLAT website.
Despite the redaction, the tribunal reaffirmed that Google had abused its dominant position in the market. The penalty reduction was based on a revised computation of Google’s relevant turnover over the past three years. Google had already deposited 10% of the penalty during the appeal process, and the remaining amount must be paid within 30 days.
The original CCI order, issued on October 25, 2022, had penalized Google for forcing app developers to use its proprietary billing system while exempting its own apps, such as YouTube. The CCI deemed this practice discriminatory and anti-competitive, directing Google to allow developers to use third-party billing systems.
