India’s Competition Commission has been sitting on a completed antitrust investigation into Apple’s App Store since 2021. The fight this month is not over the underlying conduct but over how large a fine the regulator is allowed to calculate, a dispute paused in the Delhi High Court with no new order found since mid-July.
India is also one of the countries where iPhone 18 Pro and iOS 27 both arrive this month, detailed in Apple’s September event recap, ahead of an iPhone Duo launch confirmed for October. The antitrust case below runs on an entirely separate track.
Key facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Regulator | Competition Commission of India |
| Investigation opened | 2021 |
| Alleged conduct | Abuse of dominant position via a mandatory in-app purchase system |
| Fine framework Apple is challenging | Global turnover basis, under a 2024 Competition Act amendment |
| Reported maximum exposure | Up to $38 billion |
| Delhi High Court order | CCI directed not to issue a final order before July 15, 2026 |
| Latest known status | No CCI order found dated after July 15, 2026 |
Why the number is $38 billion, and why Apple disputes the formula
India’s Competition Act was amended in 2024 to let the CCI calculate penalties on a company’s global turnover rather than only its India revenue. Applied to Apple’s full global revenue, that formula is reported to produce a maximum exposure of up to $38 billion. Apple has challenged the amendment itself in the Delhi High Court, arguing, per its own filings, that a fine calculated on global turnover for conduct confined to India would be disproportionate, arbitrary and unconstitutional. Separately, Apple has told the CCI it is a comparatively minor player in the Indian smartphone market, citing an iPhone market share the company put at roughly 9 percent against Android’s dominance.
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A court-ordered pause, and a data deadline
Apple spent much of 2026 declining to submit the financial data the CCI said it needed to calculate any penalty, prompting the regulator to set a final hearing date and warn it would proceed regardless. Apple asked the Delhi High Court to intervene. The court allowed the CCI’s investigation to continue but directed the regulator not to issue a final decision before July 15, 2026, while Apple’s separate challenge to the penalty framework remains pending before the same court. Apple was given until June 25, 2026 to hand over its India-specific financial records, a narrower disclosure than the global figures the CCI’s maximum-penalty calculation would need.
| Date | Step in the CCI-Apple penalty dispute |
|---|---|
| 2021 | CCI opens its investigation into Apple’s App Store conduct |
| April 8, 2026 | CCI order records Apple had not provided requested financial data or comments |
| May 18, 2026 | Delhi High Court lets the CCI investigation continue but bars a final order before July 15, 2026 |
| June 25, 2026 | Deadline the CCI set for Apple to submit its India-specific financial records |
| July 15, 2026 | Earliest date the Delhi High Court said the CCI may issue a final order |
What has moved since, and what has not
No CCI order dated after the Delhi High Court’s July 15 marker has surfaced on the case record checked for this article. That does not mean the case is closed. It means the two open questions, whether the CCI can use global turnover to calculate a penalty, and what any penalty will actually be, both remain unresolved into September, with the July 15 pause on a final order the most recent dated instruction on the record. A separate, parallel question, whether Apple’s own challenge to the global-turnover amendment succeeds in the Delhi High Court, could change the ceiling on any eventual fine regardless of what the CCI itself decides.
What has not been confirmed
- Any CCI order, interim or final, issued after July 15, 2026.
- A ruling from the Delhi High Court on Apple’s challenge to the global-turnover penalty framework itself.
- Any statement from Apple beyond its filings in the two proceedings.
Today is September 13, 2026. The Delhi High Court’s cause list and the CCI’s own case record are where the next dated development in this case will appear.
