The Competition Commission of India, for the second time within a month, has fined Google, for abusing its dominant position, this time with respect to its Play Store policies.
Only last week, the Indian competition watchdog had fined Google $161.95 million with respect to its Android mobile device policies.
As per the press release, the Commission found Google to be dominant in the markets for licensable OS for smart mobile devices & market for app stores for Android smart mobile OS, in India.
Google’s Play Store policies require the App developers to exclusively and mandatorily use Google Play’s Billing System not only for receiving payments for Apps but also for certain in-app purchases. Further, app developers cannot, within an app, provide users with a direct link to a webpage containing an
alternative payment method or use language that encourages a user to purchase the digital item outside of the app.
Google has been fighting this battle of being asked to open up its Play Store payment methods to alternative payment methods as well, over and above the ones offered by Google, across multiple countries.
As of now, there is no response from Google on the fine. We’ll keep the post updated as more news comes in.
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