Indian entrepreneurs who led the antitrust fight with the tech giant in India, are not impressed and see it as a status quo in terms of their case against Google.
Google may have ended its five-year antitrust battle with Epic Games on Wednesday but Indian entrepreneurs who took the tech giant to court in India say that Google’s policies are still “rent-seeking” and the overhaul does not change it.
Google announced major concessions to its Play Store policies on March 4, and this includes allowing alternative payment systems inside apps, making third-party app stores easier to install on Android, letting developers direct users to external payment sites, and lowering app store commissions for developers among others. The reforms apply globally in platform policy in phases with a 2027 rollout for markets like India.
Antitrust fight
However, Indian entrepreneurs who led the antitrust fight with the tech giant in India, are not impressed and see it as a status quo in terms of their case against Google.
“The fundamental question remains — what services are we actually paying for? For any significant download volume, we are already forced to spend massive amounts on advertising within their own platform. To then demand an additional transaction fee for a customer we acquired and a payment they didn’t process is rent-seeking at its worst,” Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal told businessline.
When asked if Google’s recent changes address India’s concerns, he says that Google is “attempting to bypass the spirit of the CCI’s previous orders” by rebranding their fees. “Earlier, when the law turned against Google Play Billing, they introduced ‘User Choice Billing’ (UCB). Now, they have unbundled the commission into a ‘Service Fee’ and a ‘Payment Fee’. By allowing third party billing but still demanding a heavy ‘Service Fee’, the total cost to the developer remains virtually unchanged,” he said.
Unfair levy
Murugavel Janakiraman, founder, Matrimony.com, another vocal critic and part of the complainants, said that despite the changes, developers will still have to pay a fee to Google to host their apps, which is akin to a cut on revenue. It is still an unfair levy and this has been the core issue in why we took the tech company to court earlier, and the case is still under investigation, he added.
Shaadi.com, Matrimony.com, along with other Indian start-ups and industry bodies like Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), moved the Competition Commission of India (CCI) back in 2020 alleging anti-competitive practices by Google which had then made the use of Google Play billing mandatory.
Google then subsequently introduced User Choice Billing to comply with the CCI order. User Choice Billing allows developers to show users an alternative billing system alongside Google Play Billing. However, the companies still argued that Google’s service fee levy was unfair and that the tech giant was abusing its monopoly power over the Android app marketplace.
Google did not respond to businessline’s queries on whether its policy overhaul impacts the current litigation in India.
Published on March 5, 2026
