New Delhi: The Competition Appellate Tribunal (COMPAT) has issued notice to Google on a plea by an import firm Eximcorp India which alleged abuse of dominance by the search giant.
"Issue notice to the respondent (Google). Reply if any, shall be filed within three weeks. The matter shall be listed on March 29, 2012," said the two-member bench of tribunal.
COMPAT also condoned the delay by Eximcorp India in filing the appeal against the order passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) rejecting its plea.
Eximcorp, which is trading in wood products, had booked ad slots on Google`s commercial platform Adwords.
The company had submitted before CCI that in Google`s Adwords platform a customer is required to go through the process of payment for every click on the search engine.
Google has complete discretion in placing webpages in the first or second page of search results.
Alleging lack of transparency in Google`s business practice, Eximcorp had contended that such practices are "inappropriate and discriminatory" in nature.
CCI has in February, 2011 had ruled that "prima facie it appears that the present case is an individual consumer dispute having no bearing on competition in India".
It had also observed that "informant has also not been able to bring any cogent evidence on record that the opposite parties are indulging in anti-competitive activities, which have appreciable adverse effect on competition".
PTI
