Less than 60 of 2L Indian developers pay service fee above 15%: Google

NEW DELHI: Google on Wednesday defended its position on Play Store service fee for developers and its stance on user choice billing policy, saying that Google Play's service fees are actually the lowest among major app stores.

Google estimates less than 60 of the over 200,000 Indian developers on Google Play currently could pay a service fee of above 15 per cent.

"This fee is further reduced by 4 per cent if a user pays through an alternative billing system," the company said in a blog post.

The tech giant said that only 3 per cent of developers in India sell digital goods or services and therefore would need to pay a service fee.

"For the vast majority of developers, service fees are 15 per cent or less due to the range of pricing programs Google Play offers," said the company.

Last week, the CCI ordered an inquiry into the alleged non-compliance by Google related to its order regarding the Play Store user choice billing policy.

The CCI in October 2022 had imposed a penalty of Rs 936.44 crore on Google for abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies.

The market regulator penalised Google for indulging in unfair practices and directed the company to follow certain corrective measures regarding the same.

The Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) reached out to the CCI over the non-compliance by Google and the market regulator last week ordered an inquiry into the alleged non-compliance by the tech giant.

Google said that it was "respectfully following the CCI's October 2022 order, and in compliance with that order, we expanded user choice billing to all developers in India and updated our policy that went into effect starting April 26, 2023.

The company said that it is now informing developers in the country who have not yet implemented one of the three billing options available that it will be taking necessary steps to ensure its policy is applied fairly.

Once notified, the developer will have two weeks to make the necessary changes to their apps as per our policy requirements.

"We remain committed to the success of the Indian app ecosystem, and look forward to Google Play enriching the lives of even more users by connecting them with helpful apps, enabling more developers to build sustainable global businesses," said the company.