An anonymous complaint was filed in February against Google with respect to Google Pay, its UPI-based payments app putting up several allegations. The complaint was related to exclusive use of Google Pay for buying apps and in-app purchases via Play Store in context of Google exploiting its dominance in the market.
And recently, Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered an investigation into two out of the many allegations surfaced. The complaint states that Google has exclusive control over the Play Store and the Android operating system (OS) due to which these systems prefer Google Pay over other competing apps.
Earlier in 2018, CCI penalised Google for using anti-competitive practices in Indian market for online search. Such allegations against Google also came into light recently in US when Justice department filed a lawsuit against the giant for abusing its market power to hamper competition.
And not just Google, other tech giants including Facebook, Amazon have been on the target of regulators all around the world due to the fear of too much power being in the hands of too few companies. They have also been envied by several other small apps who are striving to establish their names in the market but are unable to do so over big brand names.
And yet again Google is under the law eye for using 'unfair business practices' in India, this time via its popular digital payments platform. The 'unfair business practices' entail to the fact that Play Store is the dominant source of downloading apps in the Android OS and it puts up the condition that for paid apps and IAPs, the store's payment systems need to be used. Due to its grip over Android, a significant volume of payments fall directly under control of the tech giant resulting in high commission fee of 30%.
This high comission fee then increases the costs of Google's competitors and might result in cutting down opponents. If other application developers increase their subscription fees to offset their costs, then this move might turn back on them affecting their user count and experience negatively.
Google has been claiming that switching to other platforms is a choice open to every user and that competition is just 'a click away' but the reality of the matter is that whether intentionally or organically, Google has made itself into one of the only decent options available. That being said most users prefer to stay loyal to their trusted platform, automatically cutting out any chances for other competitors to stand, paving way for allegations and complaints. How much truth the complaints hold can only be truly revealed once an unbiased investigation of the matter is carried out.
