Google has stated that it will take measures to ensure that its Google Play payments policy is applied fairly in India. The company reiterated that it is respectfully following the CCI's October 2022 order and is expanding its user choice billing to all developers in India as a result.
The move comes after an antitrust investigation was launched in response to allegations made by a number of Indian startups to determine whether Google's in-app billing system violates regulations.
Google has now responded to these allegations, emphasising that its payment policy complies with CCI's order. In a blog post, the company also justified the cut by stating that the fees it charges developers are 15 per cent or less - the lowest rates of any major app store. Furthermore, Google stated that if a user pays through an alternative billing system, the fee is reduced by 4 per cent to "fairly reflect that Google Play's billing system has not been used."
Developers now have three billing options: use Google Play's billing system, offer a billing system in addition to Google Play's, or operate without a service fee by allowing users to access paid content elsewhere.
According to Google, the majority of developers worldwide have already chosen one of these options. In India, the company is informing developers who have not implemented one of these options that it will take steps to ensure that this policy is applied fairly now that the deadline has passed.
CCI had previously fined Google Rs 1337.76 crore for abusing its dominant position in the Android ecosystem. Google was also ordered to allow users to uninstall first-party apps from their Android devices and to stop imposing exclusivity clauses on device manufacturers.
