Google’s googly has confounded digital companies and the government
₹1,340 crore on Google and issued a cease and desist order to remove its monopolistic practices. India is not the only jurisdiction where Google’s Play Store is facing accusations of monopolistic practices. Last December, Google’s Play Store and billing service faced charges of being an illegal monopoly at a US district court.
A fine of $700 million was slapped on Google. Europe has also slapped large fines on Google for its anti-competitive practices. Google challenged the directives from India’s CCI, and dragged the case to the Supreme Court with the contention that CCI overstepped its jurisdiction and is in violation of the Competition Act 2002.
Even as the case remains sub-judice in the Supreme Court, things came to a head this week when Google unilaterally decided to delist a bunch of popular Indian apps from its store, on charges of the apps no paying Google’s charges, which have since then been brought down to under 15% of revenues. However, it is widely believed that this is a usurious charge, as 15% of revenues will destroy business models of companies. Such a move also deprives Indians of access to various digital tools, and hence is a much deeper impact on the country.
The issue becomes even more challenging for the government, as taking any action on Google Play store will actually harm the Indian digital ecosystem. If Google Play Store stops today, billions of dollars worth of economic activity will stop. So, it in fact challenges the sovereignty of the nation on matters of the digital economy.
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