Delhi HC asks CCI to take up ADIF’s petition against Google

The Delhi High Court has ordered the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to take up the complaints filed by Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), a group representing Indian startups, against Google’s new in-app billing policy.

The court asked the CCI to consider the complaints by April 26, when Google’s new billing policy is scheduled to become operative.  This comes as a major relief to digital start-ups in the country. In its petition to the Delhi High Court, the Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), whose members include the companies like Paytm, Matrimony.com and MapMyIndia, had alleged that Google was engaging in anti-competitive conduct by implementing the user choice billing system (UCB).

The arguments by the parties were primarily around whether it was within the ambit of the law for CCI to take the complaints up given that it has only two members, and is therefore lacking a quorum.

ADIF, which is an industry body representing a group of Indian startups, filed an application with CCI arguing that Google’s User Choice Billing program for Play Store developers, which goes into effect from April 26, is not in compliance with the antitrust order issued by the competition regulator last October, as Google continues to impose various restrictions on developers using third-party billing system including requiring them to pay a commission between 11% to 26%.

ADIF’s counsel also referred to past cases where CCI decided on matters even when there was a lack of quorum and requested the court to order CCI to do the same in this case or suspend User Choice Billing until CCI reviews the case. The court granted the former by directing CCI to adjudicate the issue immediately. Following submissions by the parties, the court had reserved its judgement last Wednesday.