Google had blocked Paytm in its Play store following a policy update on September 18, prior to the IPL cricket tournament, to not allow apps that support any unregulated gambling, but restored the mobile app after a few hours after that reversed the campaign.
Local financial services firm Paytm said it was forced to comply with Google’s mandate to remove the UPI refund and scratch card campaign to reappear on the Android Play Store.
“Offering both is legal in India, and the refund is granted following all the rules and regulations set by the government,” Paytm said.
The digital payments firm alleged it was “manipulated” by the major search engine to comply with its biased Play Store policies of apps “that are intended to artificially create Google’s market dominance.”
Paytm on the blog says that Google Pay has started their Tez Shots campaign which clearly states, “Score Runs to earn assured rewards worth up to Rs 1 lakh” at the beginning of this cricket season.
No immediate comment was received from Google on the matter.
Paytm on his blog says that in the game Tez Shots a user can play as many times as he wants and win coupons that he can unlock at each milestone.
Finally, they qualify for a giveaway through which they get insured tickets of up to Rs 1 lakh with any qualifying payment. For different scores from 50 to 1000 and up, they also get rewards and discounts on different services they use through the Google Pay app, Paytm said on the blog.
“Presumably, these Google Pay money-back campaigns do not violate Play Store policies, or maybe they are, but a different set of rules applies to Google’s own applications,” said the digital payments firm. .
Paytm said it launched a campaign on September 11 in which users could collect cricket stickers and scratch cards to win a UPI rebate.
The offer applied to recharges, utility payments, UPI money transfers and adding money to the wallet and on September 18 at 11:30 am, the company received the first email from Google Play Support informing that the application Paytm for Android had been removed from the list.
The digital payments company managed by Vijay Shekhar Sharma alleged that it was not given the opportunity to respond to its concerns or express its opinions.
“We maintain that our promotional campaign was within guidelines and there was no violation. It was also not related to gambling in any way,” Paytm added on his blog.
Paytm said that the Google Play support team had written to them three times: on August 20, August 28 and September 1, with some concerns about a separate matter from the promotion of Paytm First Games through the Paytm app for some alleged prior policy. violations “.
“While we strongly disagree with the allegation that we are in breach of policy (and we also disagree with the policy itself), we immediately comply with the diktat that prohibited us from promoting our gaming subsidiary,” he blogged.
Paytm First Games may conveniently run a paid promotion on Google-owned YouTube, but it is not allowed to make the same announcement in the Paytm app as per Google Policy, Paytm stated.
“We have been prompt and responsible in resolving Google’s concerns and abiding by its instructions. Google’s recent action on the removal of the Paytm application due to a UPI money-back campaign is not justified. We reiterate that our campaign The cash back guidelines were met and there was no violation, “said Paytm.
He added that, as a country, India should not be in debt to these tech giants.
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