India Refuses to Let Apple Pause App Store Antitrust Case

[MacRumors]

An Indian court has ruled that Apple must cooperate with a government investigation into its App Store practices, rejecting the company's attempt to put the case on hold (via Reuters).

The Delhi High Court ruling keeps a probe by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) alive, which found in 2024 that Apple had abused its dominant position in the iPhone apps market. The CCI wants Apple's financial data to calculate potential penalties, but Apple has refused to hand it over so far.

Apple's argument is largely procedural; it is separately challenging the legality of India's penalty framework in court, and says the CCI should wait until that challenge is resolved. India's updated competition law allows fines to be based on a company's global revenue rather than just local earnings, which given Apple's scale could mean enormous exposure.

The court did not give Apple the pause it wanted, but it did prevent the CCI from issuing a final ruling before July 15, buying the company some time. Apple also succeeded in getting certain documents placed on the legal record, though the court order didn't say what they were.

India is one of Apple's most important growth markets. Counterpoint Research puts the company's iPhone market share there at 9%, up from just 4% two years ago. Apple has also been ramping up iPhone manufacturing in the country through Foxconn and Tata as it reduces its dependence on China. A hostile regulatory environment complicates that ambition.

It is also the latest front in a years-long global battle over App Store rules. Apple faces similar scrutiny in the U.S. and Europe, where regulators and courts have pushed back on its control over app distribution and in-app payments.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: India Refuses to Let Apple Pause App Store Antitrust Case

 

[neuropsychguy]

There is a lot of legal complexity here about regulations of what governments are perceiving as infrastructure. I'll not address that. I will mention, however, that global regulators are on their way to breaking the underlying tech of iOS and Android.

By forcing Apple and Google to comply with dozens of uncoordinated regional laws (EU’s DMA, Japan, South Korea, India), we are heading toward geographical OS fragmentation. We have some of that already, but this can turn into a major headache for developers and users. A few of the issues are this:

1. The developers lose uniformity across countries. Instead of "write once, run anywhere," engineering teams now have to spend hundreds of hours building, geo-fencing, and maintaining region-specific codebases to handle different local fee structures and APIs.
2. There can be user experience issues. The "it just works" seamlessness dies when our phone's features change or apps break because we cross a physical border or change our region settings. We have some of this already, but it's an issue for people who travel regularly. Smartphones are way more ubiquitous than laptops with regional/locale rules. There are also privacy implications here.
3. There are security issues. Maintaining dozens of different regional forks of an operating system creates more room for bugs and zero-day vulnerabilities. Developers will need to restrict their apps to a certain location or deal with the added overhead of all this.

So part of what's happening is we are headed away from the global uniformity that made smartphones particularly useful in the first place. We are now moving toward a place where governments (ostensibly trying to "free" the market in their region) are creating digital borders on what's otherwise a borderless ecosystem. The web and smartphones have been great democratic equalizers (not really using that in the political sense), allowing global access. It looks like much of that is at risk with regional regulations.

Whatever people think about potential regulations like this, I hope everyone can recognize that we are headed towards something different from what we've had for years. It's unclear if it's going to be better.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I'm with India.
No delays, no dragging it out.

Let's get to it.

 

[I7guy]

These governments are like Burger King and want it their way, user experience be damned. I can’t imagine how Apple with a 7% market is dominant. It must be a really fragmented market in India for Apple to hold a dominate position at 7%.

Hope Apple prevails in some way. Maybe Apple should just leave India as the handwriting is in the wall. India doesn’t need Apple plants or jobs and Apple has china.

 

[rikki_t]

probably gets censored for this but India has a terrible reputation for enforcing legal standards regarding industrial planning and zoning laws, pollution, labor welfare and rights, only standards they have are double standards, this is just a shakedown for cold hard cash worthy of the Mafia or Yakuza, if I were Apple I'd get out of there fast

 

[turbineseaplane]

probably gets censored for this but India has a terrible reputation for enforcing legal standards regarding industrial planning and zoning laws, pollution, labor welfare and rights, only standards they have are double standards, this is just a shakedown for cold hard cash worthy of the Mafia or Yakuza, if I were Apple I'd get out of there fast

Total opposite is happening. 👇

India is one of Apple's most important growth markets. Counterpoint Research puts the company's iPhone market share there at 9%, up from just 4% two years ago. Apple has also been ramping up iPhone manufacturing in the country through Foxconn and Tata as it reduces its dependence on China.

 

[I7guy]

probably gets censored for this but India has a terrible reputation for enforcing legal standards regarding industrial planning and zoning laws, pollution, labor welfare and rights, only standards they have are double standards, this is just a shakedown for cold hard cash worthy of the Mafia or Yakuza, if I were Apple I'd get out of there fast

I’d agree. I think if I were Apple I would rethink my position here unless you want another DMA on your shoulders.

 

[switz]

There is only one Golden Goose. Many greedy folks across the political spectrum want a piece of the action based upon world wide sales.

Obituary will state too many wanted 100% so the Golden Goose died and they have nothing....

 

[now i see it]

So pretty much the world hates a-Inc’s App Store policy.
Welcome to WWDC 2026!

 

[dredlew]

Apple should have put the foot down in Europe while they had the chance. Suspending services for just a few hours would have caused enough outcry from the public that the clueless politicians would have backed off.

It’s worth remembering that the public didn’t ask for regulations; greedy corporations did, under the guise that it would lower consumer prices. Of course that was a boldfaced lie, like trickle down economics. In reality, corporations just wanted higher profits, despite already making millions off Apple’s hardware, infrastructure, and customers.

Now everyone and their goat wants to force arbitrary regulations on Apple (and Google). What’s going to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back?

 

[ipedro]

Tim Apple probably: Sooo you’re sayin’ that India won’t curry favour to Apple despite its outsized influence on its economy?
India: dialtooooooooooone
Tim: I’m sari!! Come back!

 

[East India Company]

Apple should have put the foot down in Europe while they had the chance. Suspending services for just a few hours would have caused enough outcry from the public that the clueless politicians would have backed off.

It’s worth remembering that the public didn’t ask for regulations; greedy corporations did, under the guise that it would lower consumer prices. Of course that was a boldfaced lie, like trickle down economics. In reality, corporations just wanted higher profits, despite already making millions off Apple’s hardware, infrastructure, and customers.

Now everyone and their goat wants to force arbitrary regulations on Apple (and Google). What’s going to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back?

Yes people want these regulations. Force apple to remove all barriers, split services into a different entity, force apis to be accessible by any third party, etc.
If Apple is not happy about the rules we set, they can just leave and write off 20% of their profit. And our wallets will be much better off that way.

 

[tongxinshe]

Indian makes 1/5 of the world population, so it is reasonable to fine the companies any amount within 1/5 of their global revenues.
I respect Indian government for charging big money on international companies. I hope it never cedes.

 

[eifelbube]

I’d agree. I think if I were Apple I would rethink my position here unless you want another DMA on your shoulders.

These are relatively light loads for a 4$T company. The strong products Apple makes give them the strength to carry the weight the DMA world puts on its shoulder. While doing business outside of the big and beautiful USA is not hassle-free, it has been pretty lucrative.

 

[sparkie7]

What I want to know is WHEN is  going to release a Biryani colored MacBook Neo

 

[dredlew]

Yes people want these regulations. Force apple to remove all barriers, split services into a different entity, force apis to be accessible by any third party, etc.
If Apple is not happy about the rules we set, they can just leave and write off 20% of their profit. And our wallets will be much better off that way.

Nope, people were just fine for decades since the iPhone launched. It was fine all this time until corporations felt like they didn’t make enough profit already, which is what led to complaints at regulators. People didn’t ask for any of this. Especially not from incompetent politicians who have no clue about technology and now look what this leads to.

If India, and all these other countries, want to dictate how the phone should operate, they should go ahead and make one themselves. Yeah, didn’t think so. Extortion is way easier isn’t it?

 

[switz]

An entire new group of wanna be millionaires on Apple's dime.