Google says court order not to remove Disney+ Hotstar app is interim

A temporary 4% in-app fee will apply as legal proceedings play out, the U.S. tech giant added.

In an interim order Madras high court on Tuesday said Google cannot remove Disney+ Hotstar streaming app from its official app store. It has also asked Novi Digital to pay a 4% commission to Google on the downloads through the Play Store.

Novi Digital, which is the fifteenth company to challenge the Google Play Store’s new billing system, moved the HC on Monday.

Earlier, Matrimony.com, People Interactive, Info Edge India, Arha Media and Broadcasting, Primetrace Technologies, Cold Brew Tech, Mebigo Labs, Crescere Technologies, Verve Mobile, Catchup Technologies, Sorting Hat Technologies, Alt Digital Media Entertainment, Nasadiya Technologies, and Ananda Vikatan Digital had challenged the new billing policy of Google.

Disney’s lawsuit is the latest and most high-profile challenge to Google’s policy of imposing a “service fee” of 11-26% on in-app payments in India.

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It introduced that after an antitrust directive ruled against Google’s earlier 15-30% fee and forced Google to allow third-party payments. Companies have argued that Google’s new service fee system is just a cloaked version of its earlier system.