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Indonesia’s antitrust agency KPPU on Wednesday fined Google 202.5 billion rupiah, the equivalent of $12.6 million, for antitrust violations related to payment system services for the Google Play Store.
KPPU ordered the search giant to stop the mandatory use of Google Play Billing in the Google Play Store. He also asked Google to allow all developers to participate User Choice Billing (UCB) software and they should be given a minimum service charge discount of 5% within one year of finalization of the decision his statement.
The antimonopoly organization has launched an investigation into Google in 2022 for market dominance – specifically, the company required Indonesian app developers to use Google Play Billing (GPB). The agency found that the Google Pay Payment System charged up to 30% more fees than other payment systems.
Google Play Store handles payments between developers and users through the GPB System for in-app purchases. Google requires that all purchases of digital products and services in the Google Play Store go through the Google Play Billing system. At the same time, it prohibits other payment alternatives for Google Play Billing. The agency said limiting payment options led to fewer app users, fewer transactions and lower revenue.
The agency noted that Google Play Store is the only app store pre-installed on all Android devices and has a market share of more than 50%. As for the search engine market, Google had a 95.16% market share in the Indonesian search market, while other search engines such as Bing, Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo and Yandex had the remaining share as of January 2024. According to the statistician.
Google plans to appeal the decision.
“We absolutely do not agree with the decision of KPPU and will file an appeal. Google spokeswoman Danielle Cohen said in an emailed statement that our current practices foster a healthy, competitive Indonesian app ecosystem, offer a secure platform, global reach and choice, including user-choice billing — which is Google Play’s billing model. allows alternatives to the system”. .
“In addition to our platform, we actively support Indonesian developers through a comprehensive set of initiatives, including the Indie Games Accelerator, Play Academy and Play x Unity, which reflect our deep investment in their success. We remain committed to complying with Indonesian laws and will continue to cooperate with KPPU and stakeholders throughout the appeals process,” he added.
The tech industry is closely watching a series of legal disputes over Google being fined for violating anti-competitive practices for abusing its dominant market power in various countries, including Indonesia. India, South Korea, France, AB and USA Japan’s antitrust regulator is likely to find that Google violated Japan’s antitrust laws and order the tech behemoth to stop its monopolistic behavior. Nikkei Asia.
