Supreme Court agrees to hear startups' plea against Google's billing policy

The Bench, however, refused to pass any interim orders protecting startups' removal from Google's Play Store

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear pleas by a group of startups challenging tech giant Google's new user choice billing (UCB) policy.

The Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, however, refused to pass any interim orders protecting the startups from being removed from Google's Play Store. This means Google may choose to remove the apps of these startups if they are not in agreement with the billing policy.

Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Balbir Singh, who appeared for the startups, urged the court to protect them till the case is disposed of as they are small companies. The apex refused to do so.

The division Bench of Madras High Court on January 19 dismissed appeals of Indian startups against Google's app billing policy. The court had, then asked Google not to de-list the startups' mobile applications for three weeks.

The Madras High Court in August 2023 dismissed petitions by 14 companies, including matchmaking website Bharat Matrimony and edtech firm Unacademy, against Google’s in-app billing policy and said the issue fell in the ambit of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). The startups had appealed against this decision. After their appeal was dismissed by the Division Bench, they approached the Supreme Court.

The court had said the remedy available under the Competition Act is more comprehensive than that before a civil court.

“The order of CCI is liable to be challenged in appeal before National Company Law Appellate Tribunal,” it said.

The interim August order was passed on a plea filed by Matrimony.com challenging Google’s policy. The matchmaking company sought to restrain Google from removing its app from the Play Store for not accepting the policy. The CCI, in October 2022, penalised Google Rs 936 crore and asked it not to restrict app developers from using third-party billing services. The company was also asked not to impose discriminatory conditions.

Indian startups alleged before the High Court that Google had introduced the UCB system to circumvent CCI’s order. They asked the court to declare the charges levied under UCB as illegal.

Disney moved the High Court in July 2023 to challenge Google's in-app billing system. The company, which runs the Disney+ Hotstar streaming app in India, told the court that Google was threatening to remove the streaming app if it didn't comply with the billing system. The court told Google not to remove the app from its store and asked it to receive a 4 per cent service fee from Disney.