Apple, which was investigated by India's CCI antitrust, argued that its market share in India was negligible

At the end of 2021, India's competition regulator announced an antitrust investigation into Apple.

It is reported that the Indian government is constantly tightening the supervision of technology companies. In addition to Apple, Silicon Valley giants such as Amazon and Google have also been subjected to antitrust investigations in India.

Official documents show that the case stemmed from a report by the Together We Fight Society, an NGO, against Apple.

Apple abuses its dominance in the app market, forcing developers to use its proprietary in-app purchase system, the whistleblower said. In addition, Apple takes a 30% commission on paid digital content, which is much higher than the 2%-5% commission level of other open markets.

Apple denied the above allegations to regulators and demanded that the case be dismissed, and also stressed that Apple's market share in India is less than 5%, which is "insignificant".

But in CCI's view, Apple's argument about its market share doesn't hold. CCI said the anti-competitive restrictions in this case were imposed on app developers by Apple through app Store policies. Therefore, the allegations in this case are related to Apple's abuse of dominance in app developers. At this stage, the relevant market should be defined from the perspective of the application developer, not from the perspective of the end user.

"The committee at this stage is convinced that the prima facie evidence against Apple is conclusive and worth investigating." CCI wrote. It is reported that the CCI will complete the investigation and submit a report within 60 days, but did not mention the consequences it may face if apple is found to be violating antitrust laws.

An Apple spokesperson declined to comment.

It is worth mentioning that in recent years, Apple has continuously worked hard to open up the Indian market. Last October, Apple CEO Tim Cook said nearly a third of Apple's revenue in fiscal 2021 would come from emerging markets and that it had doubled its operations in India and Vietnam.

"We are optimistic about the future, especially when we see strong demand for our new products." Tim Cook said.

According to data from research institute Counterpoint, in the third quarter of 2021, the Indian smartphone market was mainly occupied by four major brands such as Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo, Real Me and OPPO.

Despite its modest market share, Apple was the fastest-growing brand in the quarter, growing 212% year-on-year and leading the high-end smartphone market with a 44% share (phones sold for more than Rs 30,000). In addition, Apple maintains its leading position in India's top smartphone market (phones sell for more than Rs 45,000) with a share of 74%.

TarunPathak, counterpoint's research director, said Apple's user base in India is still relatively small, and the impact of any antitrust action on Apple's finances is limited, but Apple's development will be closely watched.

Synthesis/Compilation: Nandu reporter Huang Liling