Google Vs Startups: Madras High Court Reserves Order

The Madras High Court has reserved its order in the suit filed by several startups against Google's billing policy and the tech major's decision to delist them from its Play Store.

In April, Bharat Matrimony, Shaadi.com, and other companies approached the high court challenging Google's billing policies and seeking to stop it from delisting them from the Google Play Store. Subsequently, Unacademy, Kuku FM, TrulyMadly, QuackQuack, Aha, Stage, and Kutumb also filed similar suits against Google.

During the arguments on Tuesday, Google's counsel, PS Raman, submitted that a commercial court cannot decide the amount of payment that should be paid to the company according to its billing policies. Even the Competition Commission of India as a regulator cannot do that, he said.

Raman told the court that Indian startups have a contract with Google Asia Pacific as it is their market provider, according to their agreement. Hence, Google LLC cannot be made a party to the matter. The agreement, he highlighted, said that the applicable Google authority is decided on the basis of where the app would be distributed, and Google Asia Pacific is that authority here.

The tech giant also submitted that the startups complain about its dominant position of 96% market share, yet they earn huge profits by distributing their apps on the Play Store. Raman explained that some of these startups generate huge profits and are multi-billion-dollar companies that cannot say that their contract with Google is unfair on the grounds that the tech major is the stronger party.

Countering these arguments, the companies submitted that assuming the contract between them and Google is one between equally strong parties, Google still has the power to alter the contract by bringing in new billing policies. When one party has made a choice for both contracting parties, courts have time and again held that they will have the power to put limitations on it.

Previously, the court had asked the startups to submit a report to Google on the total number of downloads they recorded in June. They were also directed to pay a 4% commission to Google on the gross revenue generated via the Play Store in that month.

Google was also directed not to delist from the Play Store any companies that had filed a suit against it. These directions will apply until the high court pronounces its verdict.