Apple Describes India's Antitrust Lawsuit as 'Copy-Paste'

Apple has mounted a fierce defense in the lawsuit filed against it by India's antitrust regulator, accusing the investigation team of directly copying its rivals' claims. The company argues that the investigation unit of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) did not conduct an independent review and instead reproduced the documents provided by competitors almost verbatim. According to reports, the tech giant is demanding the complete rejection of the investigation report and its findings on these grounds. The allegations reflected in the case file also include the claim that Apple was not given the opportunity to defend itself during the investigation. The company considers this situation to be a flaw that is both illegal and unfairly puts them in a difficult position.

In 2024, Competition Commission investigators prepared a special report concluding that Apple exhibited "abusive behavior" in its App Store. According to the report, the company was accused of creating unfair competition by forcing app developers to use its own payment system. On the other side of the lawsuit are Apple's rivals, including Match Group and some Indian startups. Apple counters these claims by arguing that it is a very small player in India's smartphone market. It is stated that the company's share is below six percent, claiming that it does not hold a dominant position in the overall market.

The most striking detail highlighted in Apple's defense is the claim that the investigation team repeated the rivals' complaints word for word. The company submitted tables to the court showing that documents provided by firms like Match, Walmart-owned PhonePe, and local rival Paytm were compiled into a table and transferred directly into the investigation report. Furthermore, it was stated that the regulator unauthorizedly copied a chart showing global mobile app expenditures from a lawsuit filed by the European Union against Apple. According to Apple, Indian officials used this chart without any analysis, ignoring India's unique market dynamics. A similar defense was previously made by Google, but this did not change the final decision, which included mandatory changes regarding how Android is promoted.

The dispute between the parties is not limited to technical findings; penal sanctions and procedural processes also constitute a major crisis point. The regulator accuses Apple of deliberately slowing down the investigation, failing to answer questions, and conducting parallel legal battles. India's new antitrust legislation allows for fines of up to ten percent of a company's global turnover, posing a potential massive risk of 38 billion dollars for Apple. Arguing that the fine should be calculated based on its local turnover in the Indian market rather than its global turnover, the company has filed a separate lawsuit in a New Delhi court. Additionally, Apple believes it has been treated unfairly, noting that Google was given multiple opportunities to provide oral testimony and defend itself during the investigation process, whereas it was never granted this right.

The underlying concern behind this legal battle is the future of the App Store business model and its potential impact on India's digital economy. Apple warns that any mandatory regulation from the court could deeply disrupt its meticulously designed app store business model. The company believes that the regulator's steps will create investment uncertainty in the country, which will harm Indian consumers and entrepreneurs. Despite all these clashes, the company refused to submit certain historical global financial documents until the beginning of 2026, subsequently agreeing to provide only its local Indian turnover. Ultimately, the tech giant's defense relying on the copy-paste accusation reveals a new dimension in the unending war over market dominance between multinational companies and India.