Indonesia’s antitrust agency, KPPU, fined Google 202.5 billion Rupiahs, which is about $12.6 million, on Wednesday. This fine was for breaking antitrust laws regarding its payment method for the Google Play Store.
The KPPU told Google to stop requiring users to use Google Play Billing in the Google Play Store. It also requested that Google allow all developers to join the User Choice Billing (UCB) program and provide them with a 5% discount on service fees for a year after the choice is made, according to its statement.
In 2022, the antitrust agency began looking into Google because of its strong position in the market. They were especially concerned that Google made Indonesian app makers use Google Play Billing (GPB). The agency discovered that the Google Pay Billing System charged fees as high as 30%, which is more than other payment systems.
The Google Play Store uses the GPB System to manage payments for in-app sales between developers and users. Google says you have to use the Google Play Billing system for all digital payments in the Google Play Store. It also does not allow other payment options besides Google Play Billing. The agency said that having fewer payment choices caused fewer people to use the app, resulting in fewer transactions and less money made.
The agency pointed out that the Google Play shop is the only app shop that comes pre-installed on all Android devices and it holds more than 50% of the market share. As of January 2024, Google had a 95.16% share of the search engine market in Indonesia, while other search engines like Bing, Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo, and Yandex had the remaining share, according to Statista.
Google Aims To Challenge The Decision
“We don’t agree with the KPPU’s decision and will appeal it.” “We support a healthy and competitive app market in Indonesia by providing a safe platform, global access, and options for users, including the ability to use different billing methods instead of Google’s,” said Danielle Cohen, a Google spokeswoman, in an email statement.
“We help Indonesian developers by offering various programs like Indie Games Accelerator, Play Academy, and Play x Unity. This shows how dedicated we are to their success.” We are dedicated to following Indonesian law and will keep working with the KPPU and other involved parties during the appeals process,” she said.
The tech industry is paying attention to court cases where Google has been fined for unfair business practices because it has misused its strong market position in countries like Indonesia, India, South Korea, France, the EU, and the U.S. Japan’s antitrust regulator is expected to find that Google has broken the country’s antitrust rules and will require the company to stop its unfair practices, as reported by Nikkei Asia.
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