Google’s billing practices just got a reality check — and a discount.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has upheld key findings by India’s competition watchdog against Google’s Play Store policies, but slashed the penalty from a towering ₹936.44 crore to a more palatable ₹216 crore.
The judgment, delivered by a bench led by retired Justice Ashok Bhushan and Technical Member Barun Mitra, found that Google’s treatment of app developers, especially its mandatory billing system, tilted the playing field in its favor. The full text of the order is still awaited, but the broad strokes are clear: Google’s dominance doesn’t give it a free pass to dictate terms.
The saga traces back to October 2022, when the Competition Commission of India (CCI) fined Google and ordered it to stop forcing developers to use its in-house billing system for app purchases and in-app payments. Developers, the CCI said, should have the freedom to use third-party payment platforms without facing hurdles.
The CCI’s probe began in 2020 after it received complaints about Google’s stranglehold over payments in its app ecosystem. Not only did Google demand a cut of up to 30% from developers, but it also exempted its own apps—like YouTube—from these charges. The Commission found this to be a textbook case of discriminatory pricing and behavior.
Google’s policy, said the CCI, throttled innovation and denied fair market access to rival payment processors. Developers were being boxed into a system that benefited only one player — Google itself.
The Commission’s directives went beyond billing. Google was told not to penalize apps for choosing third-party billing and to be transparent about its services and pricing. It was also warned against imposing any conditions that were “unfair, unreasonable, discriminatory, or disproportionate.”
In addition, Google was instructed to stop restricting developers from interacting with users outside the Play Store ecosystem — a practice known as anti-steering. It was told to clean up its data practices too: no more leveraging billing data to gain an edge over competitors. Developers, the CCI insisted, must have access to their own app data with proper protections in place.
The tech giant challenged the CCI’s ruling in early 2023, but NCLAT didn’t offer much interim comfort.
Meanwhile, Indian startups haven’t exactly bought into Google’s course correction. Several allege the company is merely dressing up its old tactics under a new name — “user choice billing.” This so-called alternative allows users to pay with other systems, but developers still have to pay a hefty fee, just marginally lower than before.
In this model, developers shell out between 6% and 26% depending on the type of app and revenue, only a slight drop from the original 10% to 30% charges.
So while Google has now dodged a heavier penalty, the pressure to genuinely open up its ecosystem remains. The fight isn’t over — proceedings are still alive and kicking before both the CCI and NCLAT.