The Competition Commission of India's (CCI) Additional Director General has stated that Google's contentious payment billing system for Play Store developers is 'unfair and discriminatory.'

CCI has gathered three different orders and complaints submitted with the commission between 2020 and 2021, alleging that Google is favoring Google Pay over other competing apps due to its control over the Play Store and the Android operating system, as part of the inquiry (OS).

According to the results, Google engages in ‘discriminatory practices’ by not using its Google Billing Payment System (GBPS) for certain of its own apps, despite the fact that it has made it essential for other app developers. As a result, the Play Store payment policy is deemed ‘unfair’ and ‘discriminatory’.

Google does not supply any other 'added services' as part of GBPS, according to the competition watchdog, so it can charge (commission) up to 30 percent. It also does not allow any 'negotiation' on pricing for app developers, leaving them with little alternative.

Other instances where the CCI found Google in violation of Section 4 of the Competition Act include the tech giant not allowing other unified payments interface (UPI) apps to accept payments for in-app purchases, which might have a negative influence on the country's 'innovation' of payments.

The search engine giant will be called to present its case to the regulator in response to these new findings, after which a decision will be made.

The FCC also looked into claims that Google used search manipulation to market Google Pay. The Reserve Bank of India has been asked to investigate the situation by the CCI.

Google faced backlash over its Play Store billing policy after announcing in a blog post on March 23 that it was launching a program in collaboration with Play developers to test different methods of user-choice payment, beginning with audio streaming service Spotify. Spotify was also able to develop its own invoicing system thanks to new innovations.