Google to Take Action Against Some Indian App Developers for not Paying Fees of Play Store

American technology company Google on Friday said that it will take action against a group of app developers in the country for not following its Play Store billing policy. Internet search engine and technology company Google is owned by Alphabet. The company claims that these app developers have not paid the Play Store fees for availing its services. Because of this, they can be removed from this Android app marketplace.

In this regard, TechCrunch reports that some companies of the country had filed petitions in the Madras High Court challenging the billing policy of Google’s Play Store. These companies argue that Google charges heavy fees for its services. Google charges 11 percent to 26 percent service fee per download of a paid app. Apart from this App Fees are also charged on purchases made in. The report states that these companies include Unacademy, Kuku FM and Info Edge. According to a report by NDTV Profit, the High Court had rejected this appeal. However, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the petitions filed by these companies.

The Supreme Court had refused to give any interim order to Google to not delist the apps of these companies from the Play Store. These companies later Google Google had written a letter to the government requesting not to delist the apps until the Supreme Court hears the special leave petition on March 19. However, Google has indicated that it is not ready to accept this request and action will be taken against these app developers for not paying the fees.

Google has said, “For years, no court or regulator has denied Google’s right to charge fees for the Play Store service. The Supreme Court also refused to interfere with our right to do so on February 9. Some of these app developers have started participating in our business model and ecosystem in a fair manner. However, some others are finding ways not to do so.” Google has said that only 60 app developers in the country are charging more than 15 percent fees. Not taking action against app developers who do not pay fees would be unfair to more than two lakh app developers who follow the billing policy.