The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has said Google’s billing system for app developers is “unfair and discriminatory” after initial findings of an extensive investigation.
Google discriminated against developers in its Play store billing policy, according to report by Bloomberg.
The findings come after a months-long investigation triggered by protests from developers, who’ve complained the US internet giant charges an unfairly high fee in return for using Android app stores and its proprietary payments service.
“Google is imposing unfair and discriminatory conditions in violation of regulations," CCI said in its preliminary report dated March 14.
“Google’s conduct is also resulting in denial of market access to competing UPI apps since the market for UPI enabled digital payment apps is multi-sided, and the network effects will lead to a situation where Google Pay’s competitors will be completely excluded from the market in the long run,” it said, referring to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
“We will continue to engage with the CCI and demonstrate that our practices benefit Indian consumers and developers, without in any way restricting competition,” Google said in a statement.
The backlash in India echoes global opposition to the fee structure imposed by Google and Apple in their online app stores.
Last month, Alphabet said it will begin letting some apps bill users directly as an alternative to paying through Google, a concession intended to assuage mounting antitrust concerns.
Google generally took a 30% commission on most app store purchases and subscriptions, but lowered the fee in recent years to 15% for media providers like Spotify.
