Apple Faces $38 Billion Fine Risk in India Antitrust Case

Apple’s defense against India’s antitrust case rests less on denying the underlying conduct than on attacking the quality of the investigation itself. In a June 25 submission to the Competition Commission of India, Apple argued the regulator’s findings should be thrown out because investigators “copy-pasted” conclusions from rivals rather than conducting independent analysis. The CCI’s Director General had privately concluded in 2024 that Apple engaged in “abusive conduct” on the App Store and wrongly mandated its own payment system.

Apple provided tables attempting to show the investigation team reproduced filings from opponents including Match, Walmart’s PhonePe, and Indian payments rival Paytm. The company also claimed the CCI “blindly replicated” a graphic from a 2024 EU ruling on App Store commission practices despite India facing different market conditions. Google made a similar copy-paste argument in its own Indian antitrust case and it had little effect on the final outcome, which resulted in forced changes to Android.

The procedural complaints go further. Apple says officials never gave it “a single opportunity to record its statements and provide oral evidence,” while Google was granted several chances to defend itself during its probe.

The $38 Billion Number

The financial stakes explain some of Apple’s procedural aggression. India’s antitrust penalty law, which took effect in 2024, allows fines of up to 10% of global turnover, which Apple has calculated as potential exposure of $38 billion. Apple spent over two years resisting the case, including pursuing a parallel legal challenge to that penalty law before agreeing to cooperate in early June 2026, ultimately submitting only local Indian turnover figures.

The CCI has countered that Apple stalled for more than two years by withholding responses and delaying financial disclosures. Apple’s “final extension” to supply documents ran to June 25, the same day it filed the copy-pasting accusation.

The timing sits awkwardly against Apple’s manufacturing ambitions. India is on track to produce 26% of the world’s iPhones in 2026, up from 6% four years ago, and Apple itself has warned that forced App Store changes “could deter investments in India’s digital economy.” That argument lands differently when the company filing it controls a growing share of the country’s manufacturing base.