On May 18, a court in New Delhi ordered Apple to "fully cooperate" with investigators examining alleged anticompetitive conduct in the iPhone apps market, while simultaneously asking the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to hold off on issuing a final order until at least July 15.
The company had asked the court to suspend the case, arguing that it had mounted a legal challenge to India’s law governing antitrust penalties and that the regulator should therefore wait before requiring Apple to submit financial data. The CCI has been seeking Apple’s financial information to calculate any potential penalties after an investigation in 2024 concluded that the company had abused its dominant position in the market.
The court’s order, published on its website, did not grant Apple’s request to put the matter on hold. Instead, it required the company to cooperate fully with investigators while inserting a procedural pause by telling the CCI not to pass a final order in the matter until at least July 15.
Apple has denied any wrongdoing and has resisted the CCI’s demands for financial disclosures, arguing in part that its ongoing challenge to India’s penalty calculation law should delay those requirements. The regulator says the financial information is typically necessary to determine the scale of any penalties.
The Indian case is one of several antitrust matters Apple is facing in different jurisdictions. India has become an increasingly important market for the company: research cited in the proceedings notes that Apple’s iPhone market share in India stands at 9%, up from 4% two years earlier.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
Procedural context
The court’s decision represents a middle ground that obliges Apple to assist the investigation while offering a limited temporal safeguard against an immediate final determination by the CCI. The pause requested by the court applies only to the CCI issuing a final order, not to the investigative process or the regulator’s collection of evidence.
Next steps
Unless further legal developments occur, the CCI will be asked to refrain from concluding the case until July 15, giving both sides time to consider the company’s challenge to India’s penalty calculation statute and for the court to review any additional filings or requests.