Antitrust Fines have now become an everyday problem for Google.
Recently, Google was fined $4 billion after losing an android antitrust appeal in the EU and this time around India has slapped Google with a $113 million fine for abusing the dominant position of its Google Play Store.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered Google to allow app developers to use third-party payment processing services for in-app purchases or for purchasing apps from the Play Store.
The CCI order stated, โGoogle has been given 30 days to provide the requisite financial details and supporting documents.โ
According to CCI, Play Store policies require app developers to exclusively and mandatorily use Google Playโs billing system (GPBS) not only for receiving payments for apps and other digital products but also for certain in-app purchases.
Furthermore, app developers can’t provide users with a direct link to a webpage containing an alternative payment method within the app. Google Playโs billing system also eliminates the use of a language that encourages a user to purchase a digital item outside of the app.
The investigation of the aforementioned matter begin in late 2020 after CCI claimed that GPBS imposes an “unfair condition” on consumers and developers, so is in violation of India’s laws.
CCI also correctly claimed that Google is not using its own billing system for its own apps like YouTube and that the “imposition of discriminatory conditions as well as pricing as YouTube is not paying the service fee as being imposed on other apps covered in the GPBS requirements.”
Naval Chopra, an antitrust partner at India’s Shardul Amarchand law firm which represented that complainant, told Reuters on Tuesday that,
“CCI’s order will help ensure healthy competition and reduce costs for app developers.” He further added that “The CCI order directing Google to allow alternate payment processing systems will remove the artificial barrier that Google had erected.”
Last week Google was fined $161m by India for using its Android platform to dominate the market.
You will be surprised to know that, Apple also faced an almost similar legal issue in South Korea recently and the company was ordered to accept external payment gateways for App Store purchases.