Google Play has filed a writ petition in the Karnataka High Court seeking interim relief from the ongoing investigation of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on implementing new Play Store policies.
Earlier this month, Google Play had extended the deadline for implementation of compulsory use of Google Billing Systems for in-app sales of digital goods and services, from March 31, 2022 to October 31, 2022.
“We have filed a writ in the Karnataka High Court regarding the interim relief application in the Google Play probe by CCI, seeking to move forward in line with established due process principles. We respect the CCI’s investigative process and will continue to engage cooperatively and constructively in the interest of a fair investigation,” a Google Play spokesperson said in a statement.
The probe is happening in response to the start-up industry body The Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF)’s petition to the CCI in October this year, asking for interim relief from several categories of new policies, one of which was a 30 per cent merchant commission on sale of digital goods and services, along with mandatory use of Google’s payment gateway, restricting the choice of using other payment gateways, which charge commissions of up to 5 per cent.
Post that, Google Play had announced several changes to the service fee model, bringing down the subscription fees from 30 per cent to 15 per cent.
A source told BusinessLine, that the ADIF petition was filed based on the short time or urgency of implementation and now that it has been extended by the tech giant, a writ petition has been sent to the Karnataka High Court with a few procedural requests, including details on the complainant’s identity, and appointment of a person from the judiciary on the probe panel. The tech giant is also seeking an extension on the deadline to file its response to CCI’s queries, which were due at the end of this month.
