Madras High Court Temporarily Restricts Google From Delisting Indian Startups

The Madras High Court on Friday temporarily restricted Google from delisting a group of Indian startups from the Play Store.

The division bench passed the interim relief on the condition that these startups will have to pay 4% of their gross revenue from downloads that take place through the Play Store to the tech giant.

In the previous hearing, Google LLC had given the undertaking before the division bench that it will not delist any of the apps until the matter came up for hearing before the high court.

This order has come as a result of an appeal filed against the single-judge order of the high court that dismissed the pleas filed by the startups against the user choice billing system of Google. The single-judge bench had cited that their grievances fall under the jurisdiction of the Competition Commission of India. 

The core of the conflict revolves around Google’s user choice billing system. According to this new policy, users have the option to make payments through various channels, subject to a service fee ranging from 11% to 26%. If startups opt to remain under Google's billing system, they would incur a service fee ranging from 15% to 30%.

The startups include Bharat Matrimony, Shaadi.com, Unacademy, Kuku FM, TrulyMadly, QuackQuack, Aha, Stage, and Kutumb, among others. 

The matter is likely to be heard next on Aug. 23.