The first day of sale of the iPhone 15 smartphone in Mumbai, India, on Sept. 22, 2023.
Dhiraj Singh | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Apple has filed a case in the Delhi High Court against the country’s antitrust body because of how it considers global turnover when calculating penalties.
The iPhone maker, which is among the fastest-growing smartphone brands in India, is challenging India’s new antitrust law under which the U.S. company could face fines of up to $38 billion, according to a report by Reuters.
Apple added that it was “unconstitutional, grossly disproportionate, unjust” for the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to use turnover when calculating penalties.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
The CCI has been investigating complaints from an alliance of Indian startups and Tinder-owner Match Group that accuse Apple of “abusive conduct,” which forces developers to pay high commissions for in-app purchases.
Apple denied the charges.
The CCI’s final verdict is still pending, but it said its “prima facie view [is] that mandatory use of Apple’s IAP for paid apps and in-app purchases restricts the choice available to the app developers to select a payment processing system of their choice,” in an order in December 2021.
Apple recorded its highest-ever quarterly shipments in India of 5 million units in the third quarter of 2025, according to data from IDC.
The company is expected to sell about 15 million iPhones in India this year and could rank among the top five smartphone companies there, Navkendar Singh, associate vice president with IDC India, on Nov. 18.
Apple is among the global companies diversifying their manufacturing supply chains away from China to India. In 2024, Apple’s exports from India hit a record of $12.8 billion, up more than 42% from a year earlier.
