Google asks apps to use its billing system outside India

In a tweet, Mittal said: “Received a call from @Google today mandating their payments for Indian developers in continued violation & disregard of @CCI_India orders & Indian laws. Neo-colonialism at its worst! Hope the media, courts & @PMOIndia are taking note … the Digital East India Co is here”.

In India, following an adverse order by the Competition Commission of India (CCI), Google replaced GPBS with the User Choice Billing (UCB) system. Under GPBS, Google mandates that all in-app purchases go through its payment gateway and the company charges 30% commission on such purchases.

Under UCB, which is expected to be implemented from April 26, other payment options such as cards, net banking, UPI, wallets, etc will be available but will attract a commission of 11-26%.

Rohan Verma, chief executive of MapmyIndia, also tweeted on the issue, saying: “Terrible! Everyone needs to standup [sic] for India and Indians and stop this foreign colonial domination and destruction of the domestic economy and indigenous rights”.

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An email query sent to Google has not yet elicited a response.‘They are violating the spirit of the CCI judgment’
Talking to ET, People Group’s Mittal said that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has “put it in clear words that Google cannot mandate any billing system”, referring to the October order passed by the antitrust watchdog asking Google to make certain changes to the way it operates its Android mobile operating system.

“Specifically, the order might talk about the GPBS, but it covered any position where Google mandatorily applied any billing system. Now, they have said that while in India GPBS cannot be implemented, overseas, Indian developers will have to comply with it. So, any Indian developer’s app being used in the UK, for example, will have to pay that commission as per GPBS. Even the CCI order talks about Indian developers, not just the Indian territory,” he said.

Also read | Delhi HC reserves order in ADIF plea against CCI, Google

“With this, they are fundamentally violating the spirit of the judgment. They called and said today that in two weeks they would remove many Indian apps globally from app stores if they did not comply internationally,” Mittal told ET on Thursday.

Court verdict awaited
The Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), an industry body representing Indian startups such as MapmyIndia, Paytm, Matrimony and TrulyMadly, has also taken Google to the Delhi High Court seeking an order directing the CCI to intervene in Google implementing the UCB system from April 26 onwards.

The ADIF had alleged that Google was engaging in anti-competitive conduct by implementing the UCB policy, and that it was taking advantage of CCI lacking a quorum to look into the industry body’s complaints against the tech giant.

The Delhi High Court has heard the arguments and reserved its verdict on the matter.