The Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) has filed a petition before the Competition Commission of India (CCI) through their lawyers at Sarvada Legal, seeking interim relief from Google’s new PlayStore policy which goes into effect from March 2022.

       The matter is already being looked into by the CCI for potential abuse of dominance by Google in the app market.

       The relief has been sought by ADIF on behalf of App developers as Google’s new policy will restrict certain categories of apps to use only Google Billing System (GBS) for accepting payments. This would be an issue for app developers because GBS charges 30 per cent commission for all transactions on the Google Play Store, said a statement from ADIF.

       Murugavel Janakiraman, the Founder and CEO of Matrimony.com, said: “The matter is not as much about the percentage of commission charged as it is about the anti-competitive practice of forcing a payment option as well as of forcing out other payment providers. If not kept in check, such anti-competitive policies and gatekeeper commissions will be imposed on more and more categories, causing a disastrous effect on competition and prices in India.”

       In its petition to the commission, ADIF, which represents the interests of various stakeholders such as startups, app developers, etc. and espouses the objective of improving the startup ecosystem of the country, has stated that the 30% commission charged by Google is extremely high and unfair. However, the organization said that the core issue is the mandatory imposition of the Google Play Billing system and the exclusion of other methods of payment.

       While ADIF will support the ongoing inquiry by the Director General into the matter, it has been compelled to move the application for interim relief to protect the choice of app developers to use other payment systems with far more favorable terms of service. Google’s new policy will exclude competing payment service providers from the market for payments for digital goods consumed through Android devices.

       “ADIF foresees that barring an order passed by this Hon’ble Commission to maintain status-quo until the completion of the ongoing inquiry, Google shall proceed to enforce its terms on the Play Store, thereby leading to adverse and irreversible consequences on India’s fledgling startup ecosystem,” said Sijo Kuruvilla George, Executive Director, Alliance of Digital India Foundation.

       ADIF believes that if the status quo is not maintained pending the completion of the inquiry, Google will enforce its terms on the Play Store in March 2022, leading to irreversible consequences for India’s startup ecosystem.