According to a regulatory order obtained by Reuters on Friday, India’s competition watchdog has launched an investigation into charges that Google’s service fee for in-app payments violates an earlier antitrust ruling.
Match Group, the parent company of Tinder, and other Indian companies have urged the watchdog to look into Google’s new User Choice Billing (UCB) scheme, which they claim is anti-competitive.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) issued a decision on Friday noting that “it thinks that an inquiry is required.”
The injunction is not public, and Google did not respond to a request for comment right away.
The CCI fined Google Rs 936 crore in October, saying it must allow third-party charging and avoid forcing developers to use its in-app payment system, which costs a 15%-30% fee.
Later, Alphabet’s Google began offering User Choice Billing (UCB) to allow alternative payments in addition to Google’s when purchasing in-app digital content, but other companies claimed that the new system imposed a high “service fee.”
Match and Alliance of Digital India Foundation argued that Google had not complied with the earlier antitrust directive.
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