"Received a call from Google today mandating their payment platform for Indian developers in continued violation and disregard of Competition Commission of India orders and Indian laws. Neo-colonialism at its worst!" Anupam Mittal, Founder of Shaadi.com and investor on Shark Tank India, posted on Linkedin and Twitter on April 20. "Hope the media, judiciary, and Prime Minister’s office ?? are taking note … the Digital East India Co is here and they are operating with impunity," Mittal added. Currently, Indian developers use third-party billing systems like Razorpay or PayU to process in-app purchases made by users. Developers generally pay the payments processor a commission of less than 5 percent on these purchases. Google, however, now requires developers to either use Google's billing system and pay the company between 15 to 30 percent commission (depending on the revenue of the app) or use a third-party billing system and pay Google between 14 to 26 percent commission. Third-party billing can only be provided alongside Google billing, meaning the user gets to decide which payment method to use. This is known as User Choice Billing and was announced by Google in January this year in order to comply with the antitrust order issued by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) last October. Indian startups, through the Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), have challenged Google in court and have filed for a review with CCI alleging that Google is not in compliance with CCI's antitrust order because of the exorbitant commission charged by…
