It seems that anti-competitive government checks aren’t restricted to the west. The Hindu Business Line Reports that Apple is under the scanner in India and the Competition Commission of India is studying a customer complaint. The complaint is filed under of Section 4 of The Competition Act, 2002 (amended in 2007). The section 4 specifically deals with “Abuse of dominant position”.
Apparently the complaint raises objection on Apple making its product(s) available for only a selected few carriers and puts them on sale only via Apple Stores. The complaint goes on to mention availability of apps via only the official App Store and also the servicing of these products only via authorized Apple centers. Here is a comment: 
“The complainant has also alleged that a user can only download software from the i-store and the others are not recognised by the device,” a senior CCI official told PTI.
Now there area a several things that are hard to digest here. Let me list them for you.
a) Apple products are sold in India by distributors, Imagine Stores, Croma, Vijay Sales and several other dealers. Its not just Apple Stores.
b) Aircel and Airtel are carriers selling ‘unlocked’ iPhones with an optional offer, but user is free to use it with any GSM carrier. Airtel is the biggest carrier in India. The iPads are all unlocked again (both iPad 1 and iPad 2) and sold via same channels.
c) i-store referred in the comment seems to be the ‘App Store’. Clearly Apple would need to do a lot of education when fighting this.
d) Laws can be tricky. I have spent some time reading the Section 4 of the Competition Act and it seems that the apps issue or the service center issue would be taken under the clause “indulges in practice or practices resulting in denial of market access”. It would depend on the interpretation of the law, but we would guess that Apple would argue about the App Store being open to developers for submitting apps.
e) The service center bit is very very odd. Every single manufacturer voids your warranty if your device is serviced by unauthorized centers. Apple has appointed 3rd party centers in India, they interface with Apple’s own center in Bangalore to help with major issues.
Get some popcorn out folks, this looks interesting. Remember the Okaytatabyebye case?
Note: I am no lawyer, views expressed above can’t be counted as a legal advice either.
Here is a copy of the Section 4:
