Indian app developers get a six month breather as Google defers new Play Store policy

Bengaluru, 11 December Indian app developers have got a breather for another six months as Google has deferred implementation of its new policy for Play Store.

As per the proposed policy, California-based tech giant wants to charge developers 15 per cent fee for listing apps on Google Play Store. This was supposed to come into effect by March 2022 but has been postponed twice this year.

Indian app developers are strongly opposing this fee hike by Google to put their apps on Play Store terming it as anti-competitive and monopolistic.

Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), an industry body of digital startups, had also contested the move in the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against the implementation of Google Play Store Commission.

"Google's decision to extend the deadline for the new PlayStore policy to October 2022 certainly gives developers a short-term relief for their anxiety and ADIF welcomes this decision. We, however, disagree and mark our strong objection with the reasoning given for the extension. The core issue for the developers is the gatekeeper tax of 15-30 per cent on a select category of apps and restrictions on the use of other payment options and Google fails to admit that in their announcement," said ADIF in a statement.

Meanwhile, Google in July reduced the service fee on the first $1 million in annual developer earnings to 15 per cent. Later in October, Google announced further changes to Google Play's service fee model, reducing fees for subscriptions from 30 per cent to 15 per cent.