Google has told a tribunal in India that the country’s antitrust investigators copied parts of a European ruling against the US company for abusing the market dominance of its Android operating system, arguing that the decision be quashed, legal papers show. 

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) in October had fined Alphabet’s Google $161 million for exploiting its dominant position in markets such as online search and the Android app store and had asked it to change restrictions imposed on smartphone-makers related to pre-installing apps. 

Sources told the Reuters in October that Google was worried about the Indian decision as the remedies ordered were seen as more sweeping than the European Commission’s (EC) landmark 2018 ruling for imposing unlawful restrictions on Android mobile device-makers. Google has challenged a record 4.1-billion-euro ($4.3 billion) fine in that case. 

In its filing to an Indian appeals tribunal, Google argues the CCI’s investigation unit “copy-pasted extensively from an EC’s decision, deploying evidence from Europe that was not examined in India”. 

“There are more than 50 instances of copy-pasting, in some cases word for word, and the watchdog erroneously dismissed the issue,” Google said in its filing which is not public but has been reviewed by the Reuters. 

“The Commission failed to conduct an impartial, balanced and legally-sound investigation ... Google’s mobile app distribution practices are pro-competitive and not unfair or exclusionary," the company has added. 

Spokespeople for the CCI and the EC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.