CCI shuts the Winzo-Google gaming case after the money-game ban

The Competition Commission of India on 8 September closed its inquiry into Google on a complaint by Winzo Games Private Limited. The complaint had alleged abuse of dominance in the distribution and advertising of real-money gaming apps. A bench of Chairperson Ravneet Kaur and members Sweta Kakkad and Deepak Anurag recalled the 28 November 2024 direction issued under Section 26(1) and shut the file. It recorded no finding on the merits.

"The reliefs sought by the Informant can no longer be granted, as they would be contrary to the Online Gaming Act," the order said. "Continuing the present inquiry would neither restore market access nor improve consumer choice or remedy an ongoing distortion or prevent recurrence of the conduct identified in the Prima Facie Order."

Parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act in 2025. It received assent on 22 August 2025 and came into force on 1 May 2026 with the 2026 Rules. The statute bans online money games and also bans their advertising, distribution and related payments. Once that ban is the governing law, a competition remedy that put those apps back on the Play Store would break another statute. The Commission treated that collision as fatal to the case.

Google had already filed a commitment application under the 2024 Commitment Regulations. The investigation had been kept in abeyance while that offer was examined. Google also discontinued its RMG pilot and the related advertising permissions in January 2026, before the Act took effect. Winzo later asked to withdraw. The Commission said withdrawal alone would not have forced a close. The Act, the missing remedy, the dropped pilot, the advanced commitments and the withdrawal request, taken together, did.

The validity of the Online Gaming Act is before the Supreme Court. No stay has been shown to the CCI. "The Act, therefore, continues to be the governing law of the land," the order said. The bench reserved the right to look at the same conduct again if the Act is stayed, struck down, repealed or otherwise stops operating. That sentence is the live wire in an otherwise dead file.

Winzo's original grievance was about Play Store listing and ads for real-money games while Google still ran a pilot for some of those apps. The November 2024 prima facie order had been enough to open an investigation. Two years of statute-writing then removed the market the investigation was supposed to repair. A competition authority cannot restore a business that the criminal law now forbids.

For app stores and for the remaining skill-game firms, the signal is institutional rather than doctrinal. CCI will not spend years on a dominance theory whose only remedy is illegal. It will also not give Google a clean chit. The words "no finding on the merits" are doing real work. If the Supreme Court pauses the Act, the same papers can come back off the shelf.