The Indian division of the tech giant Google is considering removing specific applications from the Play Store in India due to their failure to pay the service fee for utilizing its app store platform, according to a report by Reuters. Among the affected apps are those managed by Matrimony.com, which operates BharatMatrimony, and Info Edge, which operates a similar app named Jeevansathi, the report stated.
According to the report, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, the founder of Info Edge, confirmed receiving a notice from Google and emphasized that the company has been adhering to Play Store policies. “There are no pending invoices of Google with us. All have been paid in a timely manner,” he stated, as cited in the report. However, Matrimony.com has not officially confirmed the situation, although sources mentioned in the report indicated its involvement.
Following the news, shares of Matrimony.com experienced a 2.7 percent decline, while shares of Info Edge dropped by 1.5 percent. Google’s announcement on Friday indicated its intention to potentially remove apps belonging to ten companies that have not complied with payment terms, although the specific names were not disclosed in the blog post.
In a blog post, Google stated, “For an extended period of time, 10 companies, including many well-established ones, have chosen not to pay for the immense value they receive on Google Play by securing interim protections from court.” This move comes amidst previous legal actions taken against Google by companies like Walt Disney and Match Group, the parent company of Tinder, regarding Google’s policy of charging a ‘service fee’ ranging from 11 to 26 percent on in-app purchases in India.
Google implemented the service fee following an antitrust directive that challenged its previous fee structure of 15-30 percent and mandated the acceptance of third-party payments. However, companies argue that Google’s updated service fee mandate is merely a modified version of the previous one.