Broadcasters move NCLAT against Google fees on apps

New Delhi: The Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation (IBDF), a body of television broadcasters and OTT platforms, Friday sought relief from the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against an interim order by the antitrust regulator that had refused to restrain Google from imposing service fees on app developers.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) had in March refused to grant the applicant and some others interim relief from Google's app payment policies until it reached a final verdict. The IBDF's counsel has now urged the NCLAT to stop Google from collecting fees on the transactions of apps listed on the Google Play Store, including for paid app downloads and in-app purchases. The counsel questioned the rationale behind charging fees as part of the Google Play Store Billing System (GPBS) for app transactions when Google collects a one-time $25 from every developer for onboarding their apps on its Play Store.

Google, he added, also imposes fees on app transactions, ranging from 11% to 26%, even if app developers adopt an alternate payment system to GPBS. Google introduced the "User Choice Billing" mechanism in September 2022, offering app developers an alternate payment processing system after it was brought to the competition regulator's notice that the software giant provided only GPBS to app developers for processing payments.