Anupam Mittal Calls Google Digital East India Company That Charges ‘Lagaan’ From Developers

Amid the ongoing legal tussle over Google’s new user choice billing system, People Group’s founder and CEO Anupam Mittal has termed the tech major ‘Digital East India Company’. 

Lashing out at Google, Mittal, in a tweet, said that Google’s new payment norms disregard and violate the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) October 2022 antitrust directives. 

“Received a call from Google today mandating their payments for Indian developers in continued violation and disregard of  @CCI_India orders & Indian laws. Neo-colonialism at its worst! Hope the media, courts and @PMOIndia are taking note… the Digital East India Co is here,” tweeted Mittal. 

Talking to Inc42, Mittal likened the commission charged by Google to lagaan (tax) paid by Indian farmers during the colonial era. 

Speaking about the call with Google representatives, Mittal said he was warned that his company would have to comply with the new policy by April 26 or its apps would be taken off the Play Store. 

People Group operates companies like Shaadi.com, Makaan, and Mauj.

Responding to a question about the People Group companies complying with Google rules if there is no favourable verdict from the Delhi High Court, which is hearing ADIF’s appeal against the new user choice billing system, Mittal said that complying with the new billing policy tantamount to being illegal. 

“We will not give up the fight easily… It is fundamentally illegal in our interpretation and in the law’s interpretation and, according to the law of the land, they are asking us to do illegal activities. They (Google) are saying that I am your overlord… and you have to listen to my instructions, not the court in your country, not the law in your country, not the institutions of your country,” said Mittal.

Noting that the new billing system is fundamentally at odds with the CCI’s antitrust directives, Mittal said that the tech major has thrown a battery of lawyers and is taking advantage of the lack of quorum at the CCI to make its case stronger. 

Mittal said that the People Group is deploying its own set of strategies to reach out to higher authorities and to push the matter in the right direction. 

He also said that he is confident in the institutions of the country, adding that the law will act in due course of time. 

Google Under Lens

The comment comes days ahead of the April 26 deadline for the implementation of the user choice billing system. At the centre of it all is Google’s contentious payment mandates which will charge commissions in the range of 11%-26% from developers, and allow startups to embed third-party payment processors for online transactions. 

The new norms were introduced earlier this year to comply with the CCI’s antitrust directives issued in October last year. In two back-to-back judgements, the competition watchdog found Google guilty of abusing its dominance in the Android devices market and with regards to its Play Store policies. 

Accordingly, Google made a slew of reforms and undertook changes to its India operation and its policies. The new user choice billing system is a byproduct of that. However, trouble erupted earlier this month when policy think tank ADIF, with the backing of Indian startups such as Mapmyindia, Paytm and People Group competitor Matrimony, filed a plea before the Delhi High Court seeking to keep the new policy in abeyance till the watchdog completes a full fledged probe into a separate complaint filed by the CCI alleging flouting of antitrust norms. 

Arguing before the HC, the policy think tank sought the invocation of the ‘directive of necessity’ by the CCI to deal with the case. The directive allows the CCI to clear matters without quorum. 

The plea called the new billing system a ‘cloaked version’ of the previous billing policy, which charged developers 15%-30% commission, and termed the new policy an attempt by Google to circumvent the CCI’s antitrust directions. It also claimed that the new norms project a ‘hoax of giving liberty to app developers to opt for third-party payment processors’, while the marketplace remains vulnerable to Google’s abuse of its dominant position. 

A single bench of Justice Tushar Rao Gedela reserved the judgement in the matter and a verdict is expected soon. The order henceforth could decide a key battleground for Indian startups and could set a major precedent in what the startups call a fight against Google’s monopoly. 

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