Google faces a new fine, this time in India, where the local competition authority accuses it of abusing its dominant position in the Play Store. The Competition Commission of India (CCI), which opened an investigation into the technology giant in 2020, now requires the company to start allowing alternative payment systems for transactions carried out in the app store.
In a statement, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) states that, by forcing application developers to use the Google Play payments system, through the Play Store, to sell software to customers, Google imposes an unfair condition on producers.
The regulatory body argues that Google benefits from imposing that digital products be distributed through its store, since developers must configure applications so that all purchases go through the company's payment system.
Furthermore, Play Store policies require that, in addition to the initial app sale, developers must use Google's system to market any item that could be sold within the app itself. In this sense, the software cannot offer, for example, a link to an internet page containing an alternative payment method.
“If app developers do not comply with Google's policy, they are not allowed to list their apps on the Play Store and thus would miss out on the vast pool of potential customers in the form of Android users. Making Play Store access mandatory for paid apps and in-app purchases is unilateral, arbitrary and devoid of any legitimate commercial interest.”
The regulatory agency also says that Google adopts discriminatory practices, given that the company's own applications, such as YouTube, are not forced to use the payment system applied to software developed by third parties.
According to the statement, the technology giant has a period of 30 days to provide the financial details for the payment of the fine.
The Play Store policy fine is not the first imposed by the CCI on Google. Last Thursday, the 20th, the regulatory agency fined the US company $162 million for abuse of dominant position with regard to the Android operating system.
In the assessment of the Indian agency, Android gives Google a competitive advantage by including, pre-installed, the company's own tools on several smartphones, which enhances the use of Alphabet's business services
