We saw tech giant Google announce a crackdown against in-app purchases in October of 2020. This would be for all apps and games witnessed on its Play Store that weren’t using the company’s own billing system.
But the news didn’t make countries like India happy and that’s when we saw several top firms unite and battle it out against the tech giant. This forced the company to put its in-app purchase clauses on hold for the time being and that was until March of this year, right before it allowed for an extension until the end of last month.
But just one week before we crossed the deadline came the news that Google would be slapped with a hefty fine worth a staggering $113 million for not enabling developers to use other means to process payments for things like in-app dealings and app purchases. On that note, Google has now come forward and opted to delay the rules it was previously enforcing, at least for the time being in India.
A number of firms were under investigation by the county’s CCI board and it really took into account leading tech giants like Samsung and Xiaomi. And they found out how Google was literally abusing its top position and they didn’t find that to be okay because the restrictions were only on apps that didn’t belong to them. Hence, they called it out as being plan discriminatory.
For now, Google is stated to be looking at all of its legal options in a silent manner and would definitely be on the verge of appealing the decision. Moreover, it’s going to temporarily put a pause on this new enforcement for the Google Play billion system for any in-app purchases in the nation. So all developers in India would now be allowed to use other means to attain payments across their apps.
India is the only nation where Google is being scrutinized so intensely for forcing apps to follow its stringent rules for payment purposes. Hence, in March of this year, the search engine giant did try to diffuse the whole situation by claiming that app developers would be given the chance to use other means for getting payments on their apps, provided a commission was granted to Google.
For now, this whole thing linked to alternative means for payments is still in the trial phase and would be provided to developers in countries like Japan, Indonesia, and even Australia.
H/T: AP
Read next: New Report Says 3 In 10 Of Users Are Unhappy With Their Initial Google Search Results
But the news didn’t make countries like India happy and that’s when we saw several top firms unite and battle it out against the tech giant. This forced the company to put its in-app purchase clauses on hold for the time being and that was until March of this year, right before it allowed for an extension until the end of last month.
But just one week before we crossed the deadline came the news that Google would be slapped with a hefty fine worth a staggering $113 million for not enabling developers to use other means to process payments for things like in-app dealings and app purchases. On that note, Google has now come forward and opted to delay the rules it was previously enforcing, at least for the time being in India.
A number of firms were under investigation by the county’s CCI board and it really took into account leading tech giants like Samsung and Xiaomi. And they found out how Google was literally abusing its top position and they didn’t find that to be okay because the restrictions were only on apps that didn’t belong to them. Hence, they called it out as being plan discriminatory.
For now, Google is stated to be looking at all of its legal options in a silent manner and would definitely be on the verge of appealing the decision. Moreover, it’s going to temporarily put a pause on this new enforcement for the Google Play billion system for any in-app purchases in the nation. So all developers in India would now be allowed to use other means to attain payments across their apps.
India is the only nation where Google is being scrutinized so intensely for forcing apps to follow its stringent rules for payment purposes. Hence, in March of this year, the search engine giant did try to diffuse the whole situation by claiming that app developers would be given the chance to use other means for getting payments on their apps, provided a commission was granted to Google.
For now, this whole thing linked to alternative means for payments is still in the trial phase and would be provided to developers in countries like Japan, Indonesia, and even Australia.
H/T: AP
Read next: New Report Says 3 In 10 Of Users Are Unhappy With Their Initial Google Search Results
