Apple has escalated its dispute with India’s competition regulator by taking the matter to court, intensifying a regulatory battle that could redefine how the country penalizes global tech giants. In a 545-page petition filed with the Delhi High Court, the tech giant challenged India’s new antitrust penalty rules, which permit fines to be calculated based on a company’s global turnover rather than solely its Indian revenue. For Apple—whose annual global sales exceed $380 billion—this shift transforms a standard competition probe into a potential worst-case liability of approximately $38 billion. The Delhi High Court is scheduled to hear Apple’s petition on December 3.
Under Tim Cook’s leadership, Apple argues that the new penalty framework violates constitutional principles, imposes disproportionately severe fines, and lacks economic rationale—particularly since the case concerns only the operation of the App Store in India, not the company’s global activities.
The legal conflict originated in 2022, when Match Group and several Indian startups accused Apple of abusing its dominance in the iOS ecosystem by compelling developers to use its in-app payment system and charging commissions as high as 30%. Although the Competition Commission of India (CCI) launched a formal investigation, it has yet to issue a final order. However, the landscape shifted dramatically in 2024 when India overhauled its competition law, granting regulators the authority to levy fines based on a company’s total global turnover.
In its court filing, Apple contends that this penalty model violates the principle of proportionality. The company warns that such an expansive jurisdictional reach could enable Indian regulators to penalize business segments entirely unrelated to the alleged misconduct. Another key point of contention is the potential retroactive application of the new rules. Apple highlighted a recent unrelated case in which the CCI applied the 2024 amendments to assess conduct that occurred before the legal changes took effect. The company asserts that retroactively imposing harsher penalties breaches due process norms and could expose firms to massive liabilities for business practices that were lawful at the time.
The timing is especially critical for Apple. India, now the company’s fourth-largest market globally, delivered its highest-ever quarterly revenue from the region in Q4 2025. This underscores the market’s strategic importance to Apple’s global growth narrative, further amplified by Counterpoint’s recent forecast predicting a 28% year-over-year increase in iPhone shipments in India for 2025.
