Google’s Delisting Of Apps Cannot Be Permitted, Says Ashwini Vaishnaw

A day after tech giant Google took down several prominent Indian apps from its Play Store over non-compliance with billing policies, IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday (March 2) said that such delisting cannot be permitted.

“Government takes a strong view of Google delisting some apps from the Play Store. We will not allow delisting of apps,” Vaishnaw told PTI.

On Friday (March 1) Google removed 10 popular Indian apps, including Bharat Matrimony, Shaadi.com, Kuku FM and Naukri, from its Play Store and warned several others about possible actions for failing to comply with its billing policies. 

People Group’s founder and CEO Anupam Mittal told Inc42, “The government needs to intervene now and direct CCI to ensure Google is in compliance with their order and immediately restore all apps that were delisted including Shaadi.com. In any event, CCI is hearing the matter so what’s the urgency to delist? Shows the arrogance and impunity with which they operate.” 

Meanwhile, Info Edge cofounder Sanjeev Bikhchandani has said that they were intimated about the move just a few hours before the take down.

Google also delisted five of Info Edge’s apps —  the flagship Naukri app, Naukri Recruiter, Naukrigulf Job Search App, 99acres and Shiksha  — from the Play Store. However, the company’s matrimony business Jeevansathi is still available on the app marketplace.

“The app in contention was Jeevansaathi. We complied with that on February 9. We never received any notice or communication from Google about any of our other apps being non-compliant. We finally got communication just a few hours before 99acres and Naukri were delisted. We were taken totally by surprise. We are in touch with Google,” Bikhchandani told Inc42.

Cofounder and CEO of Matrimony, Murugavel Janakiraman told Inc42, “Google yesterday night deleted all our apps. Over 100 of our apps have been deleted. We are completely out of Play Store, which means out of the business. Whether you are big are small, what Google is saying is that if you don’t accept their monopoly behaviour they will delist.

The latest development comes weeks after some startups sought pause on the delisting process till March 19. 

According to media reports, around 30 concerned startups wrote to Google requesting to put a halt on the delisting until the hearing of the special leave petition (SLP). This development followed the Supreme Court’s nod to hear the pleas of the startups challenging the billing policy.

However, notably, a bench of judges led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud refused to pass an interim order in favour of these startups to protect them from being removed from the Google Play Store. 

However, days before that the Madras High Court asked Google to not delist some of these companies from the Play Store for at least three weeks. This was the second such dismissal by the HC since August 2023, after it dismissed 14 out of 16 pleas filed by the homegrown startups against the tech giant. 

The debate over the billing system of Google emerged after the tech giant reduced its commission to 11-26% following CII’s intervention over the former commission range of 15-30%, for apps requiring in-app purchases. 

Earlier, addressing Google’s new billing policy, Mittal termed the tech major ‘Digital East India Company’. In addition, he also compared Google’s billing policy with that of lagaan (tax) imposed by the British rulers on the Indian farmers during the colonial era.