Google delisted a few Indian applications from PlayStore. What could be the reasons?

On the very first day of March, Google declared that it intended to delist some Indian firms from PlayStore. The declaration by Google is nothing but a consequence of years of tiff between Google and these companies, as witnessed in the Madras High Court and the apex court of the country. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology indulged in the matter and these apps were restored soon. However, the reasons behind such tiffs still persist.

Is the Google Platform Fees an issue?

Well yes. Google collects a fee that lies between 11 percent to 30 percent per transaction in the case of all application purchases that involve a digital service. Google says that this fee is helpful in paying to Google Play. It also says that this fee is needed to make the Android ecosystem grow. Now, in situations where a developer makes use of Google's very own billing product, provides a recurring subscription service, or in case fails to make more than $1 million a year in revenue through in-app purchases, a total of 15 percent is charged by the company. In the case of app purchases in bigger firms, this very amount is 30 percent.

Regulatory scrutiny on such fees is the most stringent in South Korea and India. In these countries, Google charges about 11 percent or 26 percent in fees in case the developers make use of a different payment method. Indian developers aren't happy with these high fees. Firms like Disney+Hotstar, Bharat Matrimony, and more have also approached the court several times to challenge this high fee charged by Google through its marketplace.

The response by the regulators

It was in the year 2022 when the Competition Commission of India (CCI) fined Google an amount of Rs.936.44 crore due to its PlayStore policies. Next, the company filed an appeal against the fine at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, and the appeal is still pending.

The Indian applications that had to seek the help of the Court can now be seen back in the marketplace of Google. 

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