A group of Indian app developers and start-ups, the Alliance
A group of Indian app developers and start-ups, the Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), have filed a petition before the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against Google’s new billing policy that is expected to come into effect in March 2022.
ADIF has challenged Google’s new policy of imposing proprietary in-house payment processing systems on all developers and thereby compulsorily charging a 30% commission on all revenues earned.
The ADIF has asked for interim relief maintaining the status quo to prevent “adverse irreversible consequences on India’s fledgling startup ecosystem.” If granted, the interim relief will prevent Google from enforcing the new policy in March 2022 before the regulatory authority declares a final verdict.
In a statement, ADIF termed the commission as an app market “Lagaan” or app market tax and said:
“While the commission itself is high and onerous, the root of the issue is Google and Apple leveraging their dominance to force out other payment service providers from the app economy and denying the choice of payment provider to developers – making it an anti-competitive practice and ergo an antitrust challenge.”
