Google in ‘Gross Violation’ of CCI Order, Charging App Developers 11 to 26 Percent Commission: ADIF

The Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) on Thursday said Google is blatantly disobeying CCI orders and charging app developers an exorbitant 11-26 per cent commission even if they opt for alternative billing system. ADIF, the policy think tank focusing on Indian digital startups, has urged the authorities, including the Competition Commission of India (CCI), to look into the matter and ensure that Google complies with the specific directives of the competition commission "in letter and in spirit".

"Google has recently changed its billing requirement for app developers wherein it has mentioned that if a user pays through an alternate billing system, the Google plays service fee will be reduced by 4 per cent... Therefore, despite not using any service from Google, app developers will be forced to pay commissions to Google," ADIF said in a statement.

ADIF said that in doing so Google is blatantly disobeying CCI orders.

"This is nothing but another blatant attempt by Google to evade its obligation under the law and while Google claims that these changes are ostensibly in response to the regulatory development, the said change is in gross violation of the remedies mentioned in the CCI order," ADIF said.

Google's move is a "clear violation" of a specific direction of the CCI that the company shall not impose any condition (including price related condition) on app developers, which is unfair, unreasonable, discriminatory, or disproportionate to the services provided to the app developers.

"Further, there is absolutely no transparency as to why Google will charge 11-26 per cent even when the user avails of a third-party processing service. This becomes all the more problematic considering that most of the transactions carried out in the app digital ecosystem do not use GPBS (Google Play Billing System)," it said.