Google billing policy: Tech giant moves Delhi HC against single judge order

Google contended that the Competition Commission of India cannot hear the matter due to the lack of quorum

Google on Tuesday moved the Delhi high court challenging the single judge’s direction to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to decide the applications filed by the Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) against the tech giant’s new user-choice billing policy. However, a bench of chief justice Satish Chandra Sharma and justice Subramonium Prasad refused to urgently list the matter for Tuesday.

The Delhi high court refused to urgently list the matter for Tuesday. (Representative Image)

The single-judge bench of justice Tushar Gedela on Monday directed CCI to decide the matter on or before April 26 and senior counsel Sandeep Sethi, representing Google, told the court on Tuesday that the matter would be heard by the competition watchdog at 2.30pm the same day. He contended that the CCI cannot hear the matter due to the lack of quorum.

“There is no impediment, legal or otherwise, in directing the CCI to take up the applications under Section 42 (contravention of CCI orders) of the Act, as filed by the petitioner, for hearing and considering the same in accordance with law on or before April 26, 2023. Accordingly, the petition stands disposed of in above terms,” said the court.

The petitioner had approached the high court earlier this month with the grievance that the anti-trust regulator had failed to act on its application challenging the new payment policy of Google owing to lack of quorum.

According to ADIF, Google earlier required app developers to use its payment method named Google Play Billing System (GPBS) for all transactions, including paid app downloads and in-app purchases.

In October 2022, on an application by ADIF, CCI slapped a fine on Google for GPBS and directed it to allow use of third-party billing services for in-app payments.

ADIF moved the high court earlier this month, underlining that under its ‘user-choice billing’ (UCB) policy, which is slated to come into force from April 26, Google will be able to charge service fee at 11% or 26% in case of third party payment processors, which is anti-competitive and an attempt to bypass an order passed by the CCI.

ADIF contended that the UCB was a cloaked version of the GPBS, which projects the hoax of giving liberty to app developers to opt for third-party payment processors. ADIF said it filed several applications before CCI against Google’s non-compliance, but CCI was yet to take any action owing to lack of quorum. As a result of this, the market remains vulnerable to abuse of dominant position by Google.

The court was informed that in October last year, the CCI, while imposing a penalty of ₹936 crore, had asked Google to allow and not restrict app developers from using any third-party billing services and to not impose any discriminatory condition.

The petitioner had said its grievance was that the CCI has failed to act on its plea in relation to the new policy owing to lack of quorum to consider the issue.

It had contended that the CCI must invoke the “doctrine of necessity” and look into the matter as a refusal to intervene will cause irreversible harm to the petitioners and other app developers, and lead to distortion in the market.

Google had opposed the petition on several grounds, including that since there were only two members and the chairperson was yet to be appointed, the CCI was incapable of adjudicating the application filed by the petitioner.

In its ruling, justice Gedela said that the question of examining whether the doctrine of necessity is or is not applicable to the present case does not arise at all.