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New Delhi: Amid the ongoing tussle between Google and app developers in India, the Indian antitrust body Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered an investigation into allegations of arbitrary and discriminatory policies on the part of the tech giant, marking the latest development in this contentious saga...
The regulator will be examining issues related to Googles billing policies on its app store Google Play Store wherein applications providing digital services, such as games and dating, have to pay 11-30 percent of the money consumers spend on their apps as commission to Google...
Earlier, Googles Play Store policies required that the app developers mandatorily use Google Plays Billing System (GPBS) for receiving payments for apps sold through the Play Store as well as for certain in-app purchases...
According to the order, applicants in the case have alleged that Google is offering an illusory choice for users to opt for an alternative billing option next to Google Plays billing system and that the updated policies are discriminatory and unfair which skew and disrupt competition in the downstream app markets...
Pointing out that Google also claims that 97 percent of developers pay no service fee at all, the Commission noted that Google has other revenue streams from the free apps listed on Play Store in the form of advertisement-related revenue or otherwise...
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