Indian startups go to court to stop Google’s new in-app billing system

A group of Indian startups has asked a court to suspend Alphabet Inc Googles new in-app billing fee system until the countrys antitrust body investigates the U.S. firm for alleged non-compliance with its directives, a legal filing showed...

The Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) last month asked Indias antitrust regulator to investigate Google for devising a new system startups say still charges them a high service fee, despite an antitrust directive in October to allow use of third-party billing services for in-app payments...

In its April 10 filing at the Delhi High Court, ADIF argues that the antitrust body is yet to hear its complaint promptly even as Googles April 26 implementation date of the so-called User Choice Billing system (UCB) is nearing...

In October, the Competition Commission of India fined Google $112 million and said the company must stop forcing developers to use its proprietary in-app payment system, labelling it an abuse of Googles dominant market position.. Google has denied any wrongdoing and challenged the antitrust ruling..

But Indian startups argue Googles UCB system still imposes a service fee of 11-26%, compared with the earlier in-app payment system that charged a fee of 15-30%..

You might be interested in