Apple's India App Store case gets a procedural compromise from the Delhi bench

"The Delhi High Court told Apple over the weekend to 'fully cooperate' with the Competition Commission of India in its ongoing antitrust investigation of the App Store. In the same order, posted to the court's website on Saturday, the bench told the CCI not to issue a final ruling before 15 July. The company had asked the court to suspend the investigation entirely while it challenges India's penalty-calculation rules. It did not get that."

"The CCI's investigation, dating to a 2021 complaint joined by Match Group and several Indian startups, found in 2024 that Apple had abused its dominant position in the iPhone apps market by requiring developers to use its proprietary in-app payment system. The regulator has been seeking Apple's financial information for penalty calculation ever since, and Apple has been refusing because India's 2024 amendment to the Competition Act, which permits the regulator to impose fines against global rather than domestic turnover, is itself the subject of a separate Apple challenge."

"The Saturday order is the procedural compromise between those two positions. Apple has to hand over what the CCI has asked for; the CCI cannot use those numbers to issue a final order until at least mid-July, which buys Apple's penalty-law challenge time to move through the courts in parallel. The final hearing on the substantive question was already set for 21 May, three days from the court's posting; whether that date holds is now itself in question, with the order's language pulling the procedural deadline outward."

A Delhi High Court order requires Apple to fully cooperate with India’s Competition Commission of India during an antitrust investigation of the App Store. The order also instructs the regulator not to issue a final ruling before 15 July. Apple sought to suspend the investigation entirely while it challenges India’s penalty-calculation rules, but the request was denied. The CCI investigation began after a 2021 complaint and concluded in 2024 that Apple abused a dominant position in the iPhone apps market by requiring developers to use its proprietary in-app payment system. The CCI has requested Apple’s financial information to calculate penalties, but Apple has refused due to a separate legal challenge to a 2024 amendment allowing fines based on global turnover.

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