Indian app developers hail CCI penalty on Google as 'collective victory'

Competition commission fine on tech giant for abusing dominant position will have domino effect in other markets, they add

Indian mobile application developers hailed the Competition Commission of India’s decision to impose a fine of Rs 937 crore on Google for abusing its dominant position with regard to its Play Store policies as a collective win for Indian start-ups.

The CCI asked Google to “not restrict app developers from using third-party billing/payment processing services”.

Sijo Kuruvilla, former executive director of the think tank Alliance of Digital India Foundation, tweeted: “Absolute collective win by the Indian start-up ecosystem. Our Diwali gift for the world. The verdict is an inflection point. Will result in a domino effect in other markets and geographies.”

In March, Google had launched a pilot programme that allowed a few developers to offer an additional billing system alongside that of Google Play.

That initiative came ahead of Google’s announcement of reducing commissions to 15 per cent from 30 per cent for the first $1 million of revenue developers earned each year using the Play billing system, following a similar move by Apple. The company said because of the shift, 99 per cent of developers would qualify for a service fee of 15 per cent or less on its app store.

This was done at a time when the CCI had initiated a probe into the Play Store payment system in 2020.

Indian start-ups have been claiming since then that Google abused its monopoly position, enforcing the billing system, and levying a 30 per cent commission on the transactions. All apps distributed on the Google Play Store that offer in-app purchases of digital goods need to use Google Play’s billing system.

Google did not comment on the issue.

Snehil Khanor, founder and CEO of dating app TrulyMadly, said: “On CCI’s comment that stated Google shall not restrict app developers from communicating with their users: When you think about it, these should have never been restricted in the first place.”

He added that it was “a great verdict” that would protect Indian entrepreneurs from “digital colonialism”.

Vinay Singhal, co-founder and CEO, Stage, a regional OTT platform, said the order set a precedent for how other tech companies would treat Indian developers and consumers. “All in all, this is a landmark order, CCI along with ADIF and everyone else involved in this fight deserves a huge round of applause,” Singhal said.

South Korea is the only other country that has fined Google for its pricing strategy. The country amended its telecommunications Act last year to prohibit app store operators from forcing the use of only their proprietary billing systems. While announcing the pilot Google acknowledged these changes.

“Based on the experience from other geographies, it’s certain that Google will fight this tooth and nail, but this order by CCI is a great Diwali present for Digital India for sure,” said Khanor.