Delhi HC to hear Apple’s plea challenging global turnover-based penalty rule on 3 December
New Delhi: The Delhi high court will hear Apple Inc.’s plea on December 3 challenging updated competition law provisions that allow the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to impose penalties based on a company’s global turnover.
The plea was listed for hearing before a division bench headed by Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela on Wednesday, but could not be taken up due to lack of judicial time.
Union of India and CCI are among the defendants in the case.
In its lawsuit, Apple objected to the 2023 amendment to Article 27(b) of the Competition Act and the 2024 Fines Guidelines, which introduced the concept of global turnover for the calculation of penalties.
Under Section 27(b), the CCI may impose fines of up to 10% of the average turnover of the three preceding financial years on businesses found guilty of abuse of dominance or anti-competitive conduct.
The amendment significantly expands the scope of “turnover” and allows penalties to be calculated on worldwide revenue across all products and services, rather than just Indian revenue or revenue of the relevant product segment.
This overturns the Supreme Court’s landmark 2017 decision in Excel Crop Care; This decision held that penalties should be based solely on “relevant turnover”, arguing that global turnover had no rational connection with the alleged conduct in India and could lead to disproportionate consequences.
The new model brings India closer to jurisdictions such as the EU and the UK, where global turnover is used to set penalty ceilings.
However, unlike the EU, where penalties start from the revenue of the specific product in question, the Indian regime allows the use of global turnover directly in determining penalties.
Apple argues that this could lead to excessive and unfair penalties even where the allegations concern only a small portion of its business in India.
This issue has significant implications for Big Tech companies, including Google, Amazon, and Meta; these companies now face the possibility of significantly greater financial risk exposure in ongoing CCI investigations into app store rules, bundled practices and digital advertising markets. In such cases, fines may be calculated on worldwide income.
Apple’s challenge comes as the company is expanding rapidly in India, reporting record revenue driven by strong demand for the iPhone 17 – its 14th consecutive quarter of growth.
Despite the overall decline in India’s smartphone shipments, the company is expected to sell 15.5 million iPhones in 2025, up nearly 25% annually.
While Apple holds a 28% value share in the premium segment, it recently emerged as the world’s largest smartphone brand with a 19% global market share in the first quarter of 2025, ahead of Samsung’s 18%, according to Counterpoint Research.
Apple’s petition will test how India applies its new global turnover penalty regime to multinational companies with large international revenues. The outcome is likely to have significant implications for ongoing and future CCI research, particularly involving major technology platforms.
Apple India declined to comment on emailed queries on Tuesday.
