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Apple Disputes India’s New Antitrust Penalty Rules in Court

By  |  November 26, 2025
Apple Disputes India’s New Antitrust Penalty Rules in Court

Apple has mounted a legal challenge against India’s recently amended antitrust penalty framework, according to Reuters, arguing that the updated rules could expose the company to a massive financial hit. A court filing submitted to the Delhi High Court shows Apple is contesting the authority granted to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to calculate fines based on a company’s global revenue rather than just its India business.

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    The legal move marks the first challenge to the revised penalty law, which took effect last year. Per Reuters, the change enables the CCI to impose far larger fines in cases where companies are found to have abused their dominant market position.

    The dispute stems from a 2022 antitrust complaint led by Match Group and several Indian startups, which accused Apple of anticompetitive behavior in its iOS app marketplace. Investigators later issued findings that described the company’s actions as “abusive conduct,” according to Reuters. Apple has rejected those conclusions, insisting it has not violated competition rules. The CCI has not yet reached a final ruling or determined whether any penalty will be applied.

    Read more: Poland Opens Antitrust Probe Into Apple’s Privacy Practices

    In the filing, Apple warned that its “maximum penalty exposure” could reach roughly $38 billion if fines were calculated as 10% of its average global turnover from its services business over the past three fiscal years. The company argued that a “penalty based on global turnover…would be manifestly arbitrary, unconstitutional, grossly disproportionate, unjust,” per Reuters.

    The iPhone maker also objected to what it called the retrospective use of the new standards. It cited a November 10 decision where the CCI applied the updated penalty approach to conduct alleged to have occurred a decade earlier, Reuters reported.

    Apple and the CCI declined to comment when contacted.

    The European Union already allows fines up to 10% of global turnover for antitrust violations, but Apple contends that India’s retroactive application of its revised rules goes too far, according to Reuters.

    Source: Reuters