India’s antitrust watchdog has agreed to Google’s request to maintain confidential some data the corporate offered throughout an investigation into its enterprise, although the regulator denied allegations it leaked a report on the probe to the media, a decide stated on Monday.

Alphabet’s Google sued the Competition Commission of India (CCI) at a New Delhi court docket final week, urging a decide to direct the watchdog to forestall leaks of knowledge.

The submitting got here after The Times of India and Reuters reported this month, citing a confidential CCI report, that the regulator’s probe had discovered that the US tech big abused the dominant place of its Android working system in India, unfairly utilizing its “huge financial muscle” to harm opponents.

Google, in its 188-page court docket submitting seen by Reuters, stated it was aggrieved by the CCI’s rejection of its request, made earlier than the media reviews, that “highly business sensitive information” it had offered to the regulator in the course of the course of the investigation be stored confidential.

On Monday, Justice Rekha Palli stated the CCI had agreed to simply accept Google’s request to maintain its submissions confidential, with out elaborating on the small print of the settlement between the watchdog and the corporate.

If Google “still has a grievance that any information is being leaked”, it could actually search authorized recourse, Justice Palli added.

However the justice stated CCI had rejected as unfaithful Google’s allegations that it had leaked any data to the media.

Google and the CCI didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

On Friday, in a close to hour-long showdown in court docket, Google had known as the CCI a “habitual offender” when it comes to leaking confidential data. The watchdog’s counsel repeatedly denied the allegations, and accused the US firm of irritating the investigative course of.

Google’s submitting to the court docket, reviewed by Reuters, stated the publication of the investigation report’s findings brought on “irreversible damage” to its popularity.

The CCI ordered the competitors probe in 2019, saying Google appeared to have leveraged its dominance to cut back gadget makers’ means to go for alternate variations of its cellular working system, and to pressure them to pre-install Google apps.

Reuters reported on September 18, citing the confidential CCI report, that the watchdog had discovered the necessary pre-installation of apps on Android gadgets “amounts to imposition of unfair conditions on the device manufacturers” in violation of India’s competitors legislation.

© Thomson Reuters 2021