On Tuesday, Google was charged a penalty of Rs 936.44 crore for abusing its Play Store Policies. Hence, this will be the second time the Competition Commission of India ordered against Google in the past week. The antitrust watchdog had on October 20 fined Google Rs 1,337.76 crore for abusing its dominant position in various markets with the company's Android phone operating system (OS) and prescribed a dozen critical measures that the company has to comply with.
The commission has issued a cease-and-desist order prescribing eight corrective measures that Google Play will have to implement to correct the anti-competitive practices. In addition, according to reports, CCI is issuing orders against Google in at least two more cases. In the previous order, the CCI stated Google was forcing the app developers to use the in-app payment system, noting selling in-app digital goods makes up an essential means for developers to monetize their work.
The case matter is that a policy of the Google Play store requires app developers to exclusively use Google Play's Billing System (GPBS) for all customer billings. This system has to be used not only for receiving payments from the apps but also for in-app purchases made by customers. Therefore, any App developer who doesn't use GPBS is not allowed to list his product on the Google Play store.
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