Google’s New Billing Regime Violates CCI Order, Exploring All Avenues To Challenge It: ADIF

Policy think tank Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) has said that it is exploring all avenues to challenge tech major Google’s new user choice billing mechanism unveiled last week.

Reiterating its stance on the matter, ADIF termed the new billing mechanism another ‘blatant attempt’ to violate the CCI’s antitrust ruling on Play Store policies.

“So, the said policy is another blatant attempt to violate the decision of the CCI, and we are in the process of exploring all avenues to challenge the said policy as being in violation of the CCI order and Competition Act,” said ADIF.

The statement came right after ADIF moderated a session that was attended by various representatives from the matrimony, dating, fintech, edtech, and gaming sectors. The attendees brainstormed on the drawbacks of the new system and the way forward in response to Google’s recent announcement. 

This comes barely a week after Google rolled out its new user choice billing system that reduces the commissions charged by Play Store by 4%. As per ADIF, the developers will still be forced to pay commissions in the range of 11% to 26% to Google, even if they do not use any of the tech major’s services.

“The startup community agreed that Google’s non-compliance will impact the Indian startup ecosystem negatively,” ADIF added. 

Under the current scheme of things, app developers pay a 15% commission for the first $1 Mn revenue and are charged a 30% service fee for earnings in excess of $1 Mn. 

This is not the first time that ADIF has raised an alarm about the new billing system. Earlier, the policy think tank said that the changes unveiled by Google were in gross violation of the remedies mentioned in the CCI order. Besides, it also flagged that the new payments system was in violation of a CCI directive that barred Google from imposing any condition on app developers.

It also said that the new charges were still exorbitant and would stifle innovation and business growth in Indian startups.

Besides, critics have also pointed out that the new billing system entails a long-drawn six-step process and a lot of paperwork. This has added to the developers’ issues with the new system, which is already marred by high commissions at no extra service. 

The fallout comes more than a month after Google publicly said that it would overhaul its Play Store policies in India, in line with the CCI’s antitrust order. 

Earlier, the competition watchdog had imposed two separate penalties, cumulatively worth more than INR 2,274 Cr, for antitrust violations with regard to its Play Store policies and dominance in the Android devices market.

After being slapped with penalties, Google approached NCLAT and Supreme Court seeking respite but to no avail. The case has now come back to NCLAT, which is hearing an in-depth petition from Google to stall the implementation of CCI’s directives.