New Delhi (IANS)| Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Wednesday said the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s (NCLAT) judgment in the Google-Competition Commission of India (CCI) case is a warning message to all platforms and companies. The NCLAT said Google will have to pay a penalty of Rs 1,337.76 crore imposed by the CCI in October last year for anti-competitive practices with respect to Android mobile devices. Chandrasekhar said in a tweet, this important decision is a cautionary message for all platforms and companies.

The minister stressed, the rights of the digital citizens of India must be respected and any anti-competitive or anti-consumer practice would be a violation of the Indian Competition Law. In January, the Supreme Court declined to interfere with the NCLAT verdict, refusing to stay the operation of the CCI order imposing a fine of Rs 1,337.76 crore on Google.

The CCI had also imposed a fine of Rs 936.44 crore on Google in a separate case for abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies. The Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) has also repeatedly claimed that Google is blatantly flouting CCI orders in India, charging 11-26 per cent commission from app developers.

Contrary to CCI orders not to impose any unfair, discriminatory or disproportionate price-related condition on Indian app developers for in-app purchases and subscriptions, Google has shared that from April 26, 2023, it will Google will charge developers using its Google Play Billing System (GBPS) and User Choice Billing (UCB) systems a commission fee of 15-30 percent and 11-26 percent, respectively.

ADIF pointed out – Google has deliberately chosen its 11-26 per cent fee to make the option of employing alternative payment solutions through UCBs by app developers economically unattractive to app developers, such developers still need to pay those third third-party payment processing fees, which when added to Google’s 11-26 percent, could meet or exceed the 15-30 percent Gbps fees they pay today.

Gbps is just a payment method, and tech giants are charging such exorbitant commission without providing any additional service. India has set global benchmarks in digital payments and the entire payments industry is operating at 1-5 per cent service charge. Because of its outrageous dominance in the Android-based app store market, Google is demanding such exorbitant commissions.

–IANS