The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has accused Google of making threats against them after investigating allegations of unethical business practices. They have threatened to sue the CCI in this regard for leaking confidential information in the investigation report. The CCI told the Delhi High Court that the call came from a senior Google official from California. He also threatened to take the media to court if they leaked the information to the media.
The CCI alleges that Google is doing this to sideline the investigation. It said that the search engine is indirectly trying to block the investigation.
“In the next 10 days or so, the confidential and non-confidential reports will be ready and a copy will be served to them, asking for their response. That’s the natural justice process. They want a stay on the proceedings, which is against natural justice,” the court was told by the CCI.
Senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Google, told the court the confidential inquiry report has been leaked to media even before they have been served a copy.
Google told the court that the investigation was required to be kept confidential as per regulations. Otherwise, it will be difficult to protect themselves from the accusations coming against them. However, it argued that the allegations against them were inappropriate.