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India’s competition watchdog launched an investigation into Google to examine whether the company favored its payments service by abusing the market position of its Android operating system and Google Play Store, adding to the challenges stemming from increased competition in the segment.
In a statement, the Competition Commission of India (ITC) said the investigation followed claims that the company was “unfairly privileging Google Pay” by skewing search results on the Google Play Store and “prominently placing “the payment service during the initial setup of Android. smart phones.
An informant, cited by the regulator, also accused Google of promoting Google Pay over “other competing applications, at a disadvantage for both” users and applications that allow payments through the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) system. .
Going forward, the claims suggested that Google insisted that apps in its app store had to support Google Pay for in-app purchases before appearing on the Play Store.
The plaintiff said that Google’s practice was similar to Apple’s app store approach, in terms of charging developers a 30 percent commission for using the Play Store billing system and in-app billing.
CCI said Google denied the allegations, claiming that Android faced “significant competition from feature phone operating systems” in India, adding that its 30 percent service fee was not “arbitrary” but was “based on in the market, legitimate and pro-competitive “as it allowed you to cover third-party fees and support your investments in the Google Play Store.
Google Pay’s position in the Indian market was recently shaken by the entry of a rival WhatsApp offering and the loss of its top spot by its competitor PhonePe.
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