Google to remove some apps in India for violating Play Store fees

Image credits: Manjunath Kiran/AFP/Getty Images

Google has warned that it will start removing Indian apps from the Play Store if developers don’t follow its billing policies, taking a decisive step towards a three-year-old problem in India, its largest user market. Ta. The Android maker said 10 companies in the country, including “many well-known” companies it did not disclose, were avoiding paying fees despite benefiting from the platform.

Google said it took more than three years for these small groups of developers to prepare and comply with Play Store payment policies. Google says these companies will continue to comply with other app stores’ payment policies. The two companies, Bharat Matrimony and Shaadi.com, said their apps violated Play Store policies, officials said. Google will begin removing some apps starting Friday, another person said.

More than a dozen companies in India have challenged Google’s Play Store billing policies in recent years. The companies that filed the petition in the Madras High Court earlier this year included Bharat Matrimony, Shadi.com, Unacademy, Kuku FM, Alt Digital Media and Info Edge. Disney’s Hotstar and Tinder also object to Google’s policy.

“After giving these developers more than three years to prepare, including three weeks from the Supreme Court’s order, we ensured that our policies are eco-friendly, just as we do for all forms of policy violations around the world. “We are taking the necessary steps to ensure that it is applied consistently across our systems,” the company wrote in a blog post. “Where appropriate, enforcing our policies may include removing non-compliant apps from Google Play.”

Google’s comments come after the Madras High Court in January rejected petitions from several Indian tech companies against Google’s new user-select billing system.

“We have always respected local laws. For years, courts and regulators have not denied Google Play the right to charge for the value and services it provides,” Google said in a blog post. Stated. “On February 9th, the Supreme Court also refused to interfere with our rights. Some of the developers who were denied interim protection have begun to participate fairly in our business model and ecosystem. , some developers have chosen to find a way not to participate.”

Google said in a blog post that a small group of developers who don’t pay while using the Play Store creates an “unequal playing field across the ecosystem” and puts other apps and games at a “competitive disadvantage.” He wrote that he was exposed to “points”.

A small group of developers can maintain continuity in the Android ecosystem by resubmitting their apps under the rules or partnering with alternative app stores, Google wrote.

To submit an app to the Play Store, developers must choose one of Google Play’s 3 billion options. It is consumption-only, with no service fees, and is integrated with Google Play’s billing system (developers agree to pay long-term fees to Google). ), or provide an alternative billing system (reducing developer fees).

This is a developing story. This will continue in the future.