BENGALURU: Google on Friday started removing 10 Indian apps from the Play Store including Bharat Matrimony, Naukri and TrulyMadly, for non-compliant with its billing policy.
Google Play charges a service fee when developers sell in-app digital goods. The tech giant said these 10 firms including “many well-established ones” had avoided paying fees “by securing interim protections from court.”
“For years, no court or regulator has denied Google Play’s right to charge for the value and services we provide. On 9 February, the Supreme Court refused to interfere with our right to do so. While some of the developers that were refused interim protection have started fairly participating in our business model and ecosystem, others choose to find ways to not do so,” it said in a blog post.
Over two lakh Indian developers use Google Play. Only 3% of developers in India sell digital goods or services and therefore need to pay a service fee, the vast majority of whom pay 15% or less, Google said. In India, less than 60 developers on Google Play are subject to fees above 15%.
It’s a dark day for Digital India Dream, TrulyMadly co-founder and CEO Snehil Khanor told this newspaper. “These BigTechs have become the landlords of the digital ecosystem and want us to pay them lagaan. Hardly any business in India even makes 30% PAT, but they want to earn 30% of our revenue so they can keep getting bigger at the expense of our demise,” he said.
“It’s Google who is not complying with the CCI order. Despite clear order from CCI to not restrict app developers using third party payment services and to not take any adverse measure against apps, Google is forcing us to remove other gateways and only use Google’s billing systems and pay them 15-30% commission,” he said.
Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has advised Google not to delist any apps from Google Play. Four of its members have received notices from Google and the affected members of the association are of the view that a substantive hearing of the case is pending before the SC and Google should not take coercive action during pendency of the case.