Google's Play Store policy of charging 30 percent commission is “extremely high and unfair”, the Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) asserted in a petition filed before the Competition Commission of India (CCI). The petition seeks interim relief from the new policy which will come into effect from March 2022. The key issues in ADIF's petition are the mandatory imposition of the Google Play Billing system on app developers while excluding other methods of payment which charge only two percent in commission. “This will have a disastrous effect on India’s digital ecosystem by reducing choices available in the hands of app developers and users as well as harming the country's innovation ecosystem by disrupting the cost structures and margins of multiple industries,” ADIF said in a statement. The interim relief, if granted, could hinder Google’s rollout of its new Play Store policy in March next year and increase pressure on Google to reconsider its Play Store policies. Google's new policy, in brief Google said that it will enforce its billing system on all apps downloaded from the Play Store, in a bid to collect a 30 percent commission from all in-app purchases made from Play store apps, according to its blog post. The company had set January 20, 2021, as the deadline after which new apps had to use Google’s billing system. Existing apps, however, were given time till September 30, 2021, to comply with the changes but the deadline was extended again to March 31, 2022. Google will also prohibit apps that support…
