NCLAT allows redaction of confidential info in Google Play store case judgment

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday allowed Alphabet Inc. and Google's plea to redact certain portions of its recent judgment in the Google Play Store billing case. .The paragraphs contained confidential revenue data, as per Google.A Bench of Chairperson Justice (retd) Ashok Bhushan and Technical Member Barun Mitra directed that paragraphs 97 to 100 of the judgment passed on March 28 be removed from the copy uploaded on NCLAT website and also from the certified copies in future..Last month, NCLAT partly upheld the Competition Commission of India (CCI)'s findings against Google for abusing its dominant position through its Play Store billing policies, but reduced the penalty from ₹936.44 crore to ₹216 crore.The CCI had penalized Google in October 2022 for forcing app developers to use its proprietary billing system for paid apps and in-app purchases, while exempting its own apps like YouTube. CCI had held it to be discriminatory and anti-competitive and directed Google to allow developers to use third-party billing systems..Soon after the NCLAT ruling, Google filed an interlocutory application seeking redaction of certain paragraphs in which extracts from a confidential letter dated October 6, 2022, containing revenue data submitted to the CCI, were reproduced.The tech giant argued that while the CCI had maintained confidentiality over the document, those excerpts had been quoted in the NLCAT judgment. The Tribunal agreed and allowed the plea for redaction."We find substance in the submission of the applicant. Paragraphs 97 to 100 of the judgment extract part of the confidential letter 06.10.2022, hence to maintain confidentiality, we allow the prayers in the application.".Google was represented by advocates Karan Chandhiok, Tarun Donadi and Bhavika Chhabra from Chandhiok and Mahajan..The respondents were represented by advocates Vivek Pandey, Biyanka Bhatia and Shreya Kapoor from Sarvada Legal. .[Read Order]