India rejects Apple’s request to suspend antitrust report

India’s antitrust watchdog has rejected Apple’s request to suspend an investigation report accusing the company of violating competition laws, allowing the case to proceed, an internal order from the regulator showed.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered the investigation reports to be withdrawn after the tech giant said the watchdog had disclosed trade secrets to rivals in the case dating back to 2021, Reuters reported.

The commerce and industry commission asked the parties to return the reports and destroy any copies of them. The regulator then issued new reports.

The CCI’s internal order showed that Apple had alleged in November that the lead complainant in the antitrust probe, Indian nonprofit Together We Fight Society (TWFS), had failed to comply with directions to give assurance that old investigation reports had been destroyed.

Apple has asked the CCI to “take action against TWFS for non-compliance with its order” and “withhold the revised report,” according to the CCI order, dated Nov. 13 and seen by Reuters. “Apple’s request to withhold the investigation report is unacceptable,” the ITC said in the order.