In a plea to the Delhi High Court, Apple said that if the clause is applied to its ongoing legal battle with the government over the App Store antitrust investigation, $38 billion, or 10% of its worldwide revenue, will be at risk.
Apple filed a suit contesting the most recent changes to the Competition Act, which the Delhi High Court heard on Monday.
Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela's division bench has taken up the case, which contests the Act's amendment permitting the Competition Commission of India (CCI), an antitrust regulator, to penalize businesses for violations based on their worldwide turnover.
Apple's attorney, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, stated during the hearing that the company wants interim procedures to avoid taking any coercive actions.
"They (CCI) have requested financial information from us. They have instructed us to provide the DG with the financial information and a response by December 8th," he stated.
On the other hand, proponents of the CCI contended that Apple has pursued this action at this particular time in order to deflect attention from the App Store antitrust investigation.
"A $200 million or $300 million fine doesn't matter to large IT corporations... How would the actions of someone sitting outside of India affect India, the CCI lawyer asked?
What does Apple stand to lose?
In a plea to the Delhi High Court, Apple said that if the clause is applied to its ongoing legal battle with the government over the App Store antitrust investigation, $38 billion, or 10% of its worldwide revenue, will be at risk.
Apple has generated almost $380 billion in revenue annually over the last three fiscal years.
Match, the owner of Tinder, and Indian entrepreneurs have been embroiled in an antitrust dispute with Apple before the CCI since 2022. Last year, investigators released a report alleging that the US smartphone manufacturer had participated in "abusive conduct" on the app market of its iPhone operating system, iOS.
Apple described the changes as "manifestly arbitrary, unconstitutional, grossly disproportionate, and unjust" in its petition.
The corporation is requesting that judges invalidate the 2024 law that permitted the CCI to utilize global turnover—rather than just turnover in India—when determining penalties to be unlawful.
In an unrelated case on November 10, Apple noted the CCI's first application of the new regulations, which were retroactively applied to a violation by the impacted company ten years prior.
Apple contended that it has "no choice but to bring this constitutional challenge now to avoid retrospective imposition of penalty against them."
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