DBT Bureau
Bengaluru, 29 November 2024
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Thursday ordered an investigation into Google on the basis of a complaint filed by Winzo Games for alleged unfair business practices.
According to the gaming app, Google’s policies restrict the listing of real money gaming apps on its Play Store.
Winzo Games has alleged in its complaint that while on the one hand, Google does not allow its app to be listed on Play Store and on the other, it displays malware warnings when a user attempts to download its app from the website.
According to Winzo, such warnings tarnish its reputation and discourage potential users from accessing its app. It further alleged that Google is following ‘one-sided’ policies for listing on Google’s Play Store, which must be adhered by developers to be listed.
“Any unfair restrictions imposed by Google on advertisers are likely to have anti-competitive repercussions, adversely affecting their ability to compete in the marketplace,” CCI said in its order. It, however, said that nothing in this order can be construed as the final opinion before detailed investigation into this matter.
Meanwhile, Google denied such allegations. “Google has no commercial interest in refusing ad revenue unnecessarily and its approach reflects both its decision to mitigate legal risk and its obligation to comply with the law,” Google said in its submission to CCI.
Google Play Store & Indian developers:
The dispute between Google and Indian developers have been a long-standing issue with Indian developers accusing the technology giant of misusing its dominant position in multiple instances.
These are some of the past instances of friction:
- In March 2024, Google pulled out 10 popular Indian apps like Naukri, Shaadi.com, Bharat Matrimony, Truly Madly and QuackQuack among others on non-compliance with its billing policies.
- App developers are of the opinion that Google is using its dominant position to charge exorbitant commissions of 15-30% for its services.
- Some Indian developers allege preferential treatment to some apps on Google Play Store.
- These allegations have been denied by Google, which has said that its charges are competitive and more than 2 lakh developers use its Play Store.
- Many Indian tech entrepreneurs have called for developing own app store in line with India’s digital public infrastructure.
