TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (11) TMI 940
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....usive access to Truecaller to share private contact information of the users with everyone while prohibiting other apps from doing the same. By doing this, Google is favouring Truecaller and distorting the market for caller ID and spam protection apps thereby providing a monopoly space to Truecaller. In this regard, the Informant has relied on the following policies: 2.1. Developer Policy of Google which states that Google does not allow unauthorised disclosure of people's non-public contacts: "We don't allow unauthorised publishing or disclosure of people's non- public contacts". 2.2. Privacy policy of Truecaller, which allegedly allows it to publish and disclose people's non-public contacts: "Truecaller may collect....
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.... 5.2. To not allow Google to favour one company i.e., Truecaller and thus enabling it to act as a monopoly in the caller ID market. 5.3. Impose significant penalties on Google for creating and allowing a monopoly on Caller ID applications. 6. In addition, the Informant has also sought interim relief under Section 33 of the Act wherein she has prayed the Commission to compel Google to temporarily block Truecaller from operating on the Play Store till the issue is resolved. 7. The Commission considered the matter in its meetings held on 21.02.2023 and 21.06.2023. Having considered the Information, the Commission vide its order dated 21.06.2023 directed the Informant to furnish documents/ evidence, if any, in support of ....
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....information without user consent in violation of Google's Play Store policies. In reality, Truecaller's privacy policies require user authorization for access to user contact information through its Google Play Store app. Whereas Truecaller's privacy policy makes it clear that its Google Play Store app does not collect or share any user Contact Information. 9.3. The Informant cites no evidence of discriminatory treatment and fails to identify any specific apps that have been injured through stricter enforcement of Google's Play Store policies. 9.4. In relation to preferential access to APIs, Google has stated that Android APIs are open source i.e., they are freely available to any developer or manufacturer to implement on ....
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....a prayed the Commission to dismiss the Information as the Informant provides no evidence that Truecaller's Play app violates Google's Play Store policies. 10. The Commission has perused and examined the information available on record including the Information filed by the Informant, submissions of Google, rejoinder of the Informant in its meeting held on 29.05.2024 and decided to pass an appropriate order in due course. 11. It is noted that the Informant is primarily aggrieved by the disclosure of contact book of mobile phone users by Truecaller, whose primary function is to identify incoming calls by matching the caller's number with its database. The Informant alleges that Google is giving Truecaller special access to Android u....
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....t mobile OS in India and Google is dominant in the same. 14. In respect of alleged conduct on part of Google, the Commission found merit in the argument of Google that the Informant, while making allegations against Google for giving preferential treatment to Truecaller and not taking any action for violating its own policies, has relied on a version of Truecaller's app which is not available on Play Store. The Informant in her rejoinder has contested these submissions by Google, but has not substantiated the same. Therefore, the allegation of the Informant remains unsubstantiated. 15. The Informant also alleged that Google has provided certain Android APIs to Truecaller allowing it to access user's contact book data. On the other han....
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....establish that such policy change has granted any competitive advantage to Truecaller over its rivals. 18. The Informant in her rejoinder made reference to another policy of Google and alleged that Truecaller displays real-world phone contacts and personally identifiable information (names being the most important) of non-consenting individuals in violation of the said policy. The Informant, thereafter, refers to an experiment run to assert that Truecaller is harvesting user data and Google is allowing unauthorised publishing of users' contact details. Google in this regard has inter alia averred that the Informant for the first time makes a reference to a separate Google Play store policy related to deceptive behavior in apps and that s....