Will Apple be fined $38 billion by India?

Apple still has two months to comply with India’s antitrust investigation, even though it is ordered to “cooperate fully” with orders to submit financial statements.

In its antitrust investigation against Apple, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) attempted to get the company to submit audited returns for 2022 to 2024. Apple has so far refused to do so, while separately objecting to details of the very law it allegedly violated.

Now according to The Next Webthe Delhi High Court ordered Apple to hand over the financial information. However, in addition to ordering Apple to “cooperate fully”, the court also asked the ICC not to issue its decision before July 15, 2026.

The ICC had previously announced a final deadline of May 21, 2026. Apple was therefore granted an extension of approximately two months.

Apple, however, had requested a suspension of the entire process while it challenged Indian sanctions laws. The problem is that the law was recently changed to increase the amount of fines the country was allowed to impose on companies.

The change in law essentially means that India can impose a fine based on a company’s global turnover, just like Europe. It’s still unclear why Apple believes this means it could be fined $38 billion.

But Apple argues that the new law is applied retrospectively and that only part of the 2022-2024 period should be subject to it.

Apple had hoped to be able to successfully complete its case against this law before being forced to submit its cases to the ICC. It is conceivable that this two-month extension would allow for this, but it may not be likely.

Furthermore, India continues to request the source code of iOS and Apple is considerably expanding the manufacturing of its iPhones in the country.