Indian competition officials pressed ahead with a full investigation into whether Google abused the dominant position of its Android platform to suppress rivals, after determining complaints against the company had merit following a preliminary probe, Reuters reported.

Google representatives are expected to be called to appear before the Competition Commission of India in the coming months as part of the investigation, which is forecast to last about a year.

Details of the probe were not publicly released, but sources told Reuters it closely mirrors an earlier investigation into Google’s Android practices conducted by the European Commission. That case spanned three years,and resulted in a €4.3 billion penalty for the US-based tech giant.

Following the EC ruling, Google said it would stop bundling apps with the Android platform and instead charge manufacturers a licensing fee to include them.

It also created new device set-up screens to allow users in the European Union to choose their default search service and browser.

Data from StatCounter showed Android held nearly 91 per cent of the mobile OS market in India as of April 2019.