<p>Due to a disagreement over service fee payments, Google started deleting some applications, including well-known matrimonial apps, from its Play Store in India on Friday.</p>
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<p>Ten businesses in the nation, including “many well-established,” according to Google, have benefited from the platform without having to pay any fees.</p>
<p>It did not identify the companies, but an Android phone search of the Play Store produced no results for matchmaking applications including Shaadi, Matrimony.com, and Bharat Matrimony.</p>
<p>The apps Truly Madly, Kuku FM, Quack Quack, and ALTT (formerly ALTBalaji) from Balaji Telefilms have vanished from the Play Store.</p>
<p>The disagreement concerns Google’s imposition of an 11 percent to 26 percent tax on in-app purchases after an order by the anti-competition authority CCI to discontinue the previous practice of charging 15 percent to 30 percent.</p>
<p>After the Supreme Court denied the firms behind these applications temporary relief in their fight against the search giant’s platform fees, Google proceeded to delete the apps that had not paid the price.</p>
<p>In a statement, co-founder of Kuku FM Vinod Kumar Meena said that Google was acting like a “monopoly,” while Bharat Matrimony founder Murugavel Janakiraman called the decision a “dark day” for the Internet in India. QuackQuack’s founder, Ravi Mittal, promised that the business will follow the law in order to reenter the market.</p>
<p>Google has already notified Matrimony.com, the owner of the BharatMatrimony app, and Info Edge, the owner of the Jeevansathi app, of Play Store infractions.</p>
<p>According to Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani, all outstanding Google bills have been paid on schedule, and the company complies with all regulations.</p>
<p>“For the time being, Indian businesses will comply. However, India needs an App Store or Play Store that is a component of the DPI, much like ONDC and UPI. In a post on X, he tagged Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and his office, saying, “The response needs to be strategic.”</p>
<p>The top Indian startups as well as foreign companies are represented by the industry group IAMAI, which released a statement advising Google, one of its members, not to remove any applications from Google Play. At least four of the group’s members received notifications from Google, according to the trade association.</p>
<p>Google announced in a blog post that ten Indian businesses had decided to forgo paying for the “immense value they receive on Google Play” for a considerable amount of time.</p>
<p>It added that the Supreme Court had “refused to interfere” with Google Play’s ability to charge, saying that “no court or regulator has denied Google Play’s right to charge for years.”</p>
<p>Google said that by creating an unfair playing field where a small number of developers get preferential treatment over the great majority of developers who pay their fair amount, all other applications and games would be at a competitive disadvantage.</p>
<p>“After giving these developers more than three years to prepare, including three weeks after the Supreme Court’s order, we are taking necessary steps to ensure our policies are applied consistently across the ecosystem, as we do for any form of policy violation globally,” Google said.</p>
<p>It continued by stating that, if required, removing non-compliant applications from Google Play may be part of the policy’s enforcement. However, Google also said that it would continue “to offer our support to help developers get into compliance” and that current customers will be able to use the applications without any issues.</p>
<p>As part of its payment policy, it said that developers are free to submit their applications again to be featured on Play by choosing one of the three paying alternatives.</p>
<p>“Today, we have over 2,00,000 Indian developers using Google Play who adhere to our policies, helping us ensure we have a safe platform; however, for an extended period of time, 10 companies, including many well-established ones, have chosen to not pay for the immense value they receive on Google Play by securing interim protections from the court,” said the statement.</p>
<p>Google bemoaned the fact that these developers adhered to other app shops’ payment standards.</p>
<p>The IT giant said, “We’ve always respected local laws.”</p>
<p>94% of Indian phones are using Google’s Android operating system.</p>
<p>When the CCI was hearing the case, Janakiraman of Matrimony.com questioned Google’s need to delete the applications immediately. He continued by accusing Google of flouting the CCI decision and urging the government to take notice of it.</p>
<p>The matching apps Jodii, which has had over 5 million downloads, Christian Matrimony, Muslim Matrimony, and Divorcee Matrimony are among the Matrimony.com apps that have been taken down.</p>
<p>According to Snehil Kahnor, co-founder and CEO of Truly Madly, Google is pressuring apps to remove other gateways and only use its billing systems, paying them 15–30 percent commission, in spite of a clear directive from CCI to not restrict app developers from using third-party payment services and to not take any adverse measures against apps.</p>
<p>Matrimony.com, Shaadi.com, InfoEdge, Unacademy, Truly Madly, Aha, Altt, Disney+ Hotstar, Kuku FM, QuackQuack, Stage, Kutumb, Pratilipi, Ananda Vikatan, Crafto, and Testbook are among the businesses suing Google Play in the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>“The affected members of IAMAI are of the view that a substantive hearing of the case is pending before the Supreme Court of India, and Google should not take any coercive action during the pendency of the case,” the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said in a statement.</p>
Numerous Indian applications are being removed by Google from the Play Store due to nonpayment of service fees
