Android TVs in India No Longer Required to Preload Google Apps, Thanks to CCI Ruling

It’s been a rough week for Google on the legal front. The tech giant has been facing heat from regulators in both India and the United States, and two major rulings have now put the spotlight back on how Google does business.

In India, Google settled a case about Android TVs. Over in the U.S., a judge ruled that Google broke antitrust laws by dominating the digital advertising space. Both cases dig into the same big question: Is Google playing fair?

Let’s break it down.

Google Settles with India’s Competition Watchdog Over Android TV Rules

This case goes back to 2020 when two Indian lawyers, Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand, filed a complaint against Google. They argued that Google was forcing TV makers in India to pre-install its apps—like the Play Store—if they wanted to use the Android TV operating system. It didn’t stop there. The complaint said Google’s agreements also blocked TV brands from creating their own custom Android systems (also called forks).

India’s Competition Commission (CCI) agreed with the complaint. They found that Google’s rules gave it too much control over how smart TVs work in India. Essentially, if you wanted to make a TV that used Android, you had to follow Google's terms, which left little room for TV makers to innovate or use competing services.

Now, Google has agreed to settle the case. What does that mean?

• TV makers in India won’t have to bundle Google apps (like the Play Store) with their Android TVs anymore.

• They’ll also be free to create custom Android systems for their TVs without needing Google’s approval.

• Google will pay a fine of ₹20.2 crore (around USD 2.4 million) as part of the deal.

This is a pretty big shift for how smart TVs might work in India. You could soon see Android TVs without the usual Google apps—and that could open the door for more competition.

Meanwhile in the U.S.: Google Found Guilty of Holding a Monopoly in Digital Ads

While Google was settling that case in India, it was facing a much bigger problem in the United States.

A judge ruled that Google unfairly controlled the digital advertising market, which is how most websites and news outlets make money. The judge said Google was dominating both sides of the online ad world:

1. The systems that publishers use to sell ads on their websites (called ad servers).

2. The ad exchanges where those ads are bought and sold.

By controlling these two key parts of the process, Google could block out competitors, limit choices for publishers, and increase prices for advertisers. That means fewer options for websites trying to make money and potentially higher costs for businesses trying to reach customers.

The judge called this a case of “exclusionary behavior”, which hurt competition and made it harder for users to access diverse information on the internet.

Via