The Madras High Court on June 8 issued an interim order prohibiting Google from delisting the apps of a bunch of Indian startups from Play Store even if the apps are not in compliance with Google Play’s new billing policy, Economic Times reported. The court essentially extended the interim injunction it had offered to Matrimony.com (we've covered the petition in detail here) and Shaadi.com in April to all petitioners in the Google Play Billing case: Matrimony.com Shaadi.com Unacademy Kuku FM TrulyMadly QuackQuack Aha Stage Kutumb The court, however, noted that all these companies must submit a report to Google on the total number of downloads in June and pay a 4 percent commission to the company (as opposed to the 15 to 30 percent applicable under Play Billing) based on these downloads. The court made this concession to Google after the company's counsel argued that "a blanket injunction would amount to Google not earning any revenues from listing them on Play Store," MoneyControl reported. The matter is expected to be heard next on June 19. What's Google's latest billing policy: Google Play’s latest billing policy, User Choice Billing, announced by the company in January 2023, allows developers to feature a third-party billing system but only alongside Google’s billing system. And developers will have to pay Google an 11 to 26 percent commission if users pay through the third-party billing system and a 15 to 30 percent commission if users pay through Google’s billing system. In other worse, developers cannot just use a third-party billing system…
