India’s anti-trust regulator, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), on October 25 charged Google for abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies, for a penalty of Rs 936.44 crore.

Additionally, the commission issued a cease-and-desist order, with the regulator prescribing eight corrective measures that Google Play needs to implement to correct the anti-competitive practices.

At the crux of the case is a policy of Google Play store that requires app developers to exclusively use Google Play's Billing System (GPBS) for all customer billings. This system has to be used not only for receiving payments from the apps but also for in-app purchases made by customers. Any App developer who doesn’t use GPBS is not allowed to list his product on the Google Play store.

This is the second CCI order against Google in the past week. The antitrust watchdog had on October 20 imposed a penalty of Rs 1,337.76 crore on Google for abusing its dominant position in multiple markets with its Android mobile operating system (OS), and prescribed a set of about a dozen key measures that the company has to comply with.

Making access to the Play Store dependent on mandatory usage of GPBS for paid apps and in-app purchases is one-sided and arbitrary and devoid of any legitimate business interest, according to CCI.

“The app developers are left bereft of the inherent choice to use payment processors of their liking from the open market."

Selling of in-app digital goods constitutes an important means for app developers to monetize their creations/innovations. However, for in-app digital goods to be distributed to purchasing users, developers must configure their apps so that all purchases of the digital goods go through Google’s payment system, which processes the transactions.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said it has also directed to modify its conduct within a defined timeline.

CCI directed Google to "not restrict app developers from using any third party billing/payment processing services".

In the previous order, the CCI said Google forced app developers to use its in-app payment system, noting the selling of in-app digital goods makes up an important means for developers to monetize their work.

The regulator said makers of devices that run on Android shouldn’t be forced to pre-install Google services on their devices. It also asked Google to provide fair access to all stakeholders, among other things.