Google Pay appears to be courting trouble off late. Two weeks ago a Delhi court took cognisance of a petition claiming that the app flouted rules of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) interoperability. Now, the anti-competition body is looking into whether Google abused its market position to promote its mobile payments app.
A report from wire agency Reuters says a complaint filed in February claims Google was prominently showcasing its Google Play app inside the Android app store in India. This, the petitioner, claims tantamount is an unfair advantage over those of payment competitors in the market.
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The petition in the Delhi High Court said Google Pay didn't allow new users to utilise their virtual payment address (VPAs) or UPI Id on its platform, which she may have created for other platforms or apps. It said Google Pay forces consumers to create a new UPI ID or VPA for its platform.
Once the members have taken a call over whether the petition with the commission requires a wider probe or the case can be dismissed, Google would be given the opportunity to present its side of the arguments.
The antitrust complaint says Google was leveraging its strength in the Android market to promote the payment app, which also uses search manipulation to throw up the results on top of a search page looking for payment apps.
This is not a first
In the past too, Google has faced the ire of the Competition Commission which had fined its $21 million for bias against competition internet searches. The company had appealed against this ruling which hasn't yet been taken up by the antitrust body.
Another case pertaining to CCI involved a probe into Google's alleged misuse of its position to reduce the options for smartphone manufacturers to choose alternate versions of the Android operating system for the mobiles.
Google Pay said last year that it had close to 70 million active users in India, driving more than $110 billion worth of transactions on an annualised basis, antitrust bodies are obviously well within their right to probe. Others in the digital transactions business like Walmart's PhonePe or Softbank-backed PayTM are definitely getting edgy due to Google Pay's growth and the possibility of Facebook-owned WhatsApp likely to join the growing payment bandwagon.
Via: Reuters
