Google to Reinstate Delisted Indian Apps on its Play Store After Strong View from Government

American technology company Google has agreed to restore all the delisted Indian apps on its Play Store. These apps were removed for not following the in-app payment guidelines. The central government intervened in the matter and suggested both the parties to hold talks to resolve the dispute.

Telecom and Information Technology Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw has said, “Google and startups have had a meeting with me. Google has agreed to restore all the apps.” The government had taken a tough stand on delisting these apps. Ashwini had said that Google cannot be allowed to do this. He said, “We believe that Google and startups will be able to find a long-term solution to this in the coming months.”

Google claims that these app developers paid Rs 1000 to avail its services Play Store did not pay the fee. Due to this, they have been removed from Google’s Android App Marketplace. Some companies 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, fees are also charged on purchases made in the app.

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 had agreed to hear the petitions filed by these companies. The Supreme Court refused to give any interim order to Google to not delist the apps of these companies from the Play Store. These companies had written a letter to Google and requested not to delist the apps till the Supreme Court hears the special leave petition on March 19. On this, Google 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. It has reported that only 60 app developers in the country are charging more than 15 percent fees.