OTT apps join the big fight against Google’s billing policy

An industry body representing some of the major streaming players in India on Wednesday moved the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against Google’s app store billing policy, people aware of the development told ET.

The move comes a day after Disney+ Hotstar streaming app owner Novi Digital Entertainment moved the Madras High Court in a bid to stop Google from removing the app from Play Store. Disney+ Hotstar is the first non-Indian OTT (over-the-top) platform that has joined the fight with Google which has moved to the high court.

The streaming apps seeking intervention include Disney+ Hotstar, Zee5, Voot, SonyLIV, Manorama Max, SunNXT and Discovery+. They are being represented by Indian Digital Media Industry Foundation (IDMIF), an industry body for OTT platforms.


The people cited earlier told ET that in a letter to the competition watchdog, IDMIF has termed the commission charged by Google Play Store as unjustified and said that it is an affected party in the matter.

They said the CCI has asked the IDMIF to submit a detailed report and that the industry body is working on it.

"IDMIF approaching the CCI on this matter adds a lot of heft to our ongoing case that it is not just the smaller players who are hurting but also the larger players in the space that are going to take a hit," Vinay Singhal, co-founder and CEO at regional OTT startup Stage, told ET. Stage too has approached the Madras High Court against Google Play Store's billing policy.

According to sources, IDMIF’s letter to CCI says that Google's practices could mean the end of business operation for smaller TV channels and OTT players, especially in the content curation business.

They said the CCI has asked IDMIF to submit evidence of the claim it is making. "They are doing that while also telling the court that they should be made a party to the ongoing case," a source told ET.

Email queries sent to IDMIF and its member organisations remained unanswered till as of press time.

Among the entities that have already approached the Madras High Court seeking relief in the matter are streaming players Altt, Stage and Aha, several Indian startups, including Unacademy, KukuFM, TrulyMadly, QuackQuack, Pratilipi, Crafto and Ananda Vikatan, besides Bharat Matrimony and Shaadi.com.

The high court on Tuesday granted an interim injunction to Disney+Hotstar - as it has done for the other players -and directed the streaming platform to pay a lower 4% commission to Google for using its in-app payments system.

“The order (for Disney+ Hotstar) is interim in nature, and the temporary 4% figure is simply a fee that the developer will pay to Google each month while these legal proceedings play out,” a spokesperson for Google told ET in a statement issued on Wednesday.

Industry sources also said that the court ordered Disney+ Hotstar to furnish monthly accounting information to facilitate Google’s collection of the interim fee in a timely manner.

While developers were liable for commissions in the range of 15-30% under the previous Google Billing and Payments System (GBPS), the new user choice billing (UCB) system has brought down the rate by 4% to 11-26% under the new regime.

A spokesperson for Google had earlier told ET that in order to sustain the value provided by Google Play, it expected app developers to "fairly participate" in its business model, as they do with other app stores.

"We are closely working with developers to help them comply with our policies, and if a developer chooses not to comply, they continue to have many other options to operate their business on Android," the spokesperson had said.

The reason so many streaming players are seeking relief ties into the question of Google giving the web-billing option to OTTs. However, Indian players have been speaking about how this does not benefit smaller players who rely on audiences who may not be very comfortable with the web billing process and, hence, end up making in-app purchases which are liable for a heavy commission, thus hurting their revenues.

Stage's CEO Singhal said that when it comes to players like Netflix, as opposed to regional players, the reason they are not as affected is because they are a global brand, which has a more tech-savvy and sophisticated user base that is more comfortable with doing such transactions on their website and using the app.

"For us, the chances of fraud and scams increases significantly if we allow such a methodology wherein there is a website and then in-app payments," Singhal said.

However, another lawyer said that since the investigation into the matter has already been completed, the CCI may not go ahead and add IDMIF as a party unless they feel it merits addition and the organisation can make a strong case for why they are an affected party.

The share of regional languages in overall OTT video content is expected to double from 27% in 2020 to 54% in 2024, as more streaming platforms take to vernacular programming and films, according to a recent FICCI-EY report. In 2021, 47% of OTT originals and 69% of films released on platforms were not in Hindi.