Google threatens to suspend apps from 10 companies in India for non-payment

Tech giant Google threatened Friday to take action against ten Indian companies over non-payment of its service fee on Google Play store, amid a judicial battle that could change the financial dynamics of digital payment services.

“For an extended period of time, 10 companies, including many well-established ones, have chosen to not pay for the immense value they receive on Google Play by securing interim protections from court,” the tech platform said in a blog post. Without revealing the names of the companies, Google said these same developers who refuse payments do “comply with payment policies of other app stores” on Android platforms.

Now, “we are taking necessary steps to ensure our policies are applied consistently across the ecosystem,” it underlined. The measures referred to by Google, which will be applied “when necessary,” include “removal of non-compliant apps from Google Play” until developers resubmit their apps to be listed on Play by electing one of the accepted forms of billing and payment.