Shark Tank India judge and Shadi.com founder Anupam Mittal on Thursday hit out at Alphabet-owned Google for its ‘illegal’ choice billing system and even went to the extent of calling the company ‘Digital East India company.’ The billionaire investor said that Google is working in disregard to Indian laws and he hopes that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) official is taking note.
"Received a call from @Google today mandating their payments for Indian developers in continued violation & disregard of @CCI_India orders & Indian laws. Neo-colonialism at its worst! Hope the media, courts & @PMOIndia are taking note … the Digital East India Co is here," Anupam Mittal said in a tweet.
When a user asked if Anupam Mittal is talking about the 30% cut Google takes, the investor replied “Among other things.”
According to the recent policy update by Google, in case a user opts for an alternate billing system (also known as the user choice billing system), the transaction will still incur a service fee, but the fee will be reduced by 4% as compared to the standard fee.
The Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) also expressed its concerns over the matter and said Google's proposed 'User Choice billing system' requires app developers to pay a commission of 11/26 percent to Google, which means it does not comply with the remedy recommended by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
“Google, a company that has built its reputation on innovation and disruption, is resorting to these practices despite the Competition Commission of India directing Google to mend its ways in a similar case and fined it INR 937 crore for abusing its dominant position with regard to its Play Store policies This commission is not so different from the colonial ‘Lagaan’ – it is unfair to app developers and to the millions of users who rely on digital applications for their day-to-day activities,” the AIDF blog said.
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