NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Monday told the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to decide a complaint filed by Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), an industry body of Indian startups, against Google’s new user-choice billing policy and decide the same by April 26.
“…there is no impediment, whether legal or otherwise, in directing the CCI to hear the applications filed by the petitioner under section 42 and decide it on or before April 26,” justice Tushar Gedela said on Monday, ruling on the plea against Google’s policy in relation to permitting the use of third party payment processors for paid app downloads and in-app purchases on a commission basis.
The ADIF wants Google to keep its proposed user-choice billing system in abeyance till CCI completes investigation of their complaint over the tech giant’s non-compliance with the competition watchdog’s ruling in the Google Play Store policy case.
A detailed copy of the high court’s verdict is awaited.
According to ADIF, Google earlier required app developers to use its payment method named Google Play Billing System (GPBS) for all transactions, including paid app downloads and in-app purchases.
In October 2022, on an application by ADIF, CCI slapped a fine on Google for GPBS and directed it to allow use of third-party billing services for in-app payments.
ADIF moved the high court earlier this month, underlining that under its ‘user-choice billing’ (UCB) policy, which is slated to come into force from April 26, Google will be able to charge service fee at 11% or 26% in case of third party payment processors, which is anti-competitive and an attempt to bypass an order passed by the Competition Commission of India, news agency PTI said.
ADIF contended that the UCB was a cloaked version of the GPBS, which projects the hoax of giving liberty to app developers to opt for third-party payment processors. ADIF said it filed several applications before CCI against Google’s non-compliance, but CCI was yet to take any action owing to lack of quorum. As a result of this, the market remains vulnerable to abuse of dominant position by Google.
