The Competition Commission of India (CCI) told the Delhi High Court that calculating antitrust fines based on a company’s global turnover is essential to prevent multinational corporations from treating penalties as a "nominal" cost of doing business.
The filing, seen by Reuters on January 8, marks the regulator's first detailed defense of the controversial 2024 law.
The legal standoff began in November 2025, when Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) petitioned the court to strike down the provision.
Apple argued that the law—modeled after European Union standards—could lead to "grossly disproportionate" fines for conduct localized within India.
The iPhone maker estimates its maximum penalty exposure could reach approximately $38 billion if the global metric is applied to an ongoing probe into its App Store practices.
In its December 15 filing, the CCI pushed back against Apple’s claims of overreach.
The regulator argued that relying solely on India-specific revenue fails to provide a real deterrent, particularly for digital firms that operate across borders with interconnected product ecosystems.