Munmun Kaur
Published On: January 11, 2022 at 12:15 IST
Bengaluru Bench of the Karnataka High Court, on January 10 disposed off Google India’s petition which sought more time to respond to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in the Play store’s payment related case.
Earlier, Google formulated a Play Store policy for making mandatory use of Google Play Store’s payment system for the purchase of apps and in-app purchases (IAPS). It further planned to charge 30% from the app makers looking to list their apps on the store. This led CCI to open an anti-trust case against Google in 2020.
Tech startups along with their Alliance of Digital India Foundation sought Modi government’s intervention to address the anti-competition behavior of Google and the matter was also raised with the CCI. Later, CCI ordered Google to file a response by November 19, 2021 but the tech giant sought eight more weeks to file a response. The deadline was then extended to December 31, 2021. But Google approached the High Court, on December 27 seeking more time.
The Karnataka High Court disposed off the case when both the parties filed a joint memo. While on one hand CCI will be concluding its probe in the anti-trust matter in the next 60 days, Google has extended its deadline for app developers to integrate with its Play billing system in India to October 31, 2022.
This is not the first time when Google has been pushed into an anti-trust case. Earlier, in 2021, the Commission ordered another investigation over allegations that Google abuses its dominant position of Android in the country’s smart TV market too.