Apple Agrees to Hand Over Financial Data to India's Antitrust Regulator

[MacRumors]

Apple has agreed to hand over financial data to India's competition regulator, in a move that could bring a years-long antitrust case significantly closer to a penalty decision.

According to Reuters, a confidential Competition Commission of India (CCI) order showed that Apple last month agreed to supply its India-specific financials, which the watchdog typically needs to calculate potential fines. At a hearing on May 21, Apple's lawyer asked for a "final extension" until June 25 to file the information, and the CCI granted the request.

The development is an important reversal for Apple, which had previously refused to provide financial information to the regulator. The company argued the case should be paused while it separately challenges India's revised antitrust penalty law, which allows fines to be levied against a company's global revenue rather than just local earnings, which could expose Apple to up to $38 billion in fines.

The CCI repeatedly rejected that argument, saying it required only India financials to begin with and accused Apple of using the parallel court challenge to delay proceedings. Last month, a Delhi High Court judge directed Apple to cooperate with the investigation after the company sought to put the case on hold.

The case dates back to 2021, when a coalition of complainants including Match Group, the owner of Tinder, and the Alliance of Digital India Foundation, which represents Indian startups, filed a complaint regarding App Store policies. The CCI concluded its investigation in 2024, finding that Apple had abused its dominant position in the market for iPhone apps and that the App Store was "an unavoidable trading partner" for developers, who were not permitted to use third-party payment services for in-app purchases.

The case is unfolding as India becomes one of Apple's most consequential markets. The iPhone accounts for 9% of India's smartphone market, up from roughly 2% five years ago, and the company has significantly ramped up manufacturing in the country as part of its broader effort to reduce dependence on China.

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Article Link: Apple Agrees to Hand Over Financial Data to India's Antitrust Regulator

 

[ThailandToo]

This is absurd! I mean, I always preach Apple under Tim is a big anticompetitive bully, but how does one nation get to determine $38B in fines on worldwide revenue? I would pull all my manufacturing and engineering out of India and stop selling there if they fine them a substantial amount. If anything, every nation including the USA should be stopping anticompetitive behavior like we see at Apple, but one nation shouldn’t get all the power. And really only the revenue from India should be punished just like each country should bring their own lawsuits and punishment to Apple.

I thought some other countries were bad, geez. Go EU!

 

[bLackjackj]

I would pull all my manufacturing and engineering out of India and stop selling there if they fine them a substantial amount.

Apple NEEDS India,..not the other way round. Never going to happen.

 

[I7guy]

Apple NEEDS India,..not the other way round. Never going to happen.

Don’t underestimate Apple. If India is pulling this with Apple the handwriting is on the wall.

 

[jlc1978]

Apple NEEDS India,..not the other way round. Never going to happen.

I think they need each other, and the end result is likely to realize that. Politics will play a role in the outcome. A huge fine could result in a retaliatory tariff from the US, there's a reason Apple stays close to whoever is in office.

 

[jimbobb24]

Torn on this one. On the one hand India is a corrupt nation determined to find a way to stay poor with regulation. On the other its reasonable countries want local factories and local investment. They will figure it out and maybe both sides won't like the compromise.

 

[Galas]

This looks like a power play from India. They know they're key for Apple's operations

 

[dblissmn]

Torn on this one. On the one hand India is a corrupt nation determined to find a way to stay poor with regulation. On the other its reasonable countries want local factories and local investment. They will figure it out and maybe both sides won't like the compromise.

India has massively deregulated over the past 25 years, especially under the Modi government, and it has also massively grown economically. I suspect an out-of-court settlement of some kind is likely but your diagnosis of India is a long way out of date. Other than corruption, but then so are we in the west.

 

[Makayla]

India does this all the time lol. Apple is hardly alone.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I would pull all my manufacturing and engineering out of India

Do you realize what an enormous undertaking that is?

That's something that would take years to do and with no clear idea of "where to go" with it.

"Taking my ball and going home" when some regulations happen in a given jurisdiction is simply not a viable strategy for a multinational the size of Apple.

 

[ThailandToo]

Do you realize what an enormous undertaking that is?

That's something that would take years to do and with no clear idea of "where to go" with it.

"Taking my ball and going home" when some regulations happen in a given jurisdiction is simply not a viable strategy for a multinational the size of Apple.

But to decide young can penalize worldwide income is that serious. People in India don’t even buy iPhones. Shipped production to India to get screwed over by their government. Pull out. Done. I rethink China is a better place to manufacture.

 

[JMalone]

Send millions of tech jobs and support jobs to India that your own young people could have done.

Send many thousands of manufacturing jobs that your own young people could have done.

Import many thousands of Indian workers on Visas to do jobs you should be training your own young people to do.

Allow human traffickers to import thousands of Indian workers with fake IDs to work in delivery companies and shops. Jobs your own young people should be doing.

But even after all these amazing opportunities given to Indians the Indian government has zero respect for you.

Zero gratitude. The politicians just bully and impose penalties that they steal and put into their Dubai bank accounts for their rich children.

They don’t even care for 800 billion Indians who live below the poverty line and don’t have access to a personal flushing toilet.

The Modi government still ally themselves to Putin who was part of the Soviet Union when the KGB were planning to kill all Indian intellectuals and replace them with informants and spies for Russia.