India sets Apple hearing

India’s antitrust regulator has set a May 21 final hearing for Apple after saying the company still has not turned over financial data needed to calculate penalties. (moneycontrol.com) The Competition Commission of India said in an April 8 order that Apple had not submitted its financials or its response to the investigation since October 2024. Apple instead pointed to a separate case in the Delhi High Court challenging India’s antitrust penalty framework. (moneycontrol.com) That hearing is the penalty phase of a case over Apple’s App Store rules on iPhones. India’s investigation found in July 2024 that Apple abused a dominant position in the market for app stores on its iOS operating system by requiring developers to use its in-app purchase system. (business-standard.com) India opened the case in December 2021 after a complaint from Together We Fight Society, an Indian non-profit group. The complaint said Apple’s App Store terms harmed app developers, users and payment processors by tying digital purchases to Apple’s own billing system. (cci.gov.in, indiankanoon.org) Penalty fights matter in India because the regulator typically asks for company financial data before deciding how large a fine should be. Apple has argued in court that using global turnover to set penalties could expose it to an outsized sanction. (moneycontrol.com, money.usnews.com) Apple has denied wrongdoing in the case and has argued that it is a small player in India, where Google’s Android dominates the smartphone market. That defense has been central to Apple’s response since the investigation began. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) The Indian case tracks complaints regulators have examined elsewhere: whether Apple can require developers to use its own payment rails inside apps and charge commissions on those transactions. India’s move now puts the focus on remedies and fines, not just on whether the conduct happened. (business-standard.com, moneycontrol.com) The next step is narrow but important: Apple and the regulator will argue over penalties at the May 21 hearing, after months of dispute over the data India says it still needs. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)