Relief to Disney+ Hotstar from Madras high court in Google billing matter

The Madras High Court (HC) has prohibited Google from delisting Disney+Hotstar streaming mobile app from its app store, The Economic Times (ET) has reported. This comes as a sigh of relief to Novi Digital Entertainment, the entity that owns the Disney+ Hotstar application. Earlier, Novi had appealed against Google Play Store's new billing policy.

Declaring its interim order, the Madras HC directed Novi Digital, a subsidiary of Disney-owned Star India to pay a four per cent commission to Google for downloads through the Play Store.

Notably, Novi Digital is the fifteenth company to have challenged Google Play Store's New billing system, the newspaper reported.

Apart from Novi Digital, Matrimony.com, People Interactive, Info Edge India, Arha Media and Broadcasting, Primetrace Technologies, Cold Brew Tech, Mebigo Labs, Crescere Technologies, Verve Mobile, Catchup Technologies, Sorting Hat Technologies, Alt Digital Media Entertainment, Nasadiya Technologies, and Ananda Vikatan Digital have also gone to courts, the ET report said.

Novi Digital has not released a statement on the court order. Senior advocates Mukul Rohtagi and Satish Parasaran represented the company in the high court.

Also Read: Apps and payments: What is the controversy about Google Play Billing System 

What is Google Play's billing system?

Google Play's billing system is required for developers that sell in-app services and digital goods on the Google Play Store. The payment system allows Android applications to sell a one-time product or subscriptions on a recurring basis, a Google blog on the subject said.

Google Blog said that apps using an alternative in-app billing system will need to remove it in order to comply with Google's payment policy. Meaning, apps can not sell services or digital goods by making users pay inside their application eco-system.

Rather, Google mandates the use of alternative billing systems alongside Google Play's billing system for users in India who want to make in-app purchases within Play-distributed apps on mobile phones and tablets.

However, in order to use a third-party billing system, users will have to pay a service fee of 11-26 per cent. An entrepreneur and co-founder of SlideShare, Amit Ranjan told The Hindu Businessline, "Many Startups are against it because it takes away a big portion of part of their revenue and that will impact their profitability."