The Supreme Court recently refused to temporarily restrain Google from removing those apps from its Play Store that don't comply with its billing policy. [Arha Media and Broadcasting v. Google India].A Bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was hearing appeals filed by digital start-ups and app developers challenging the Madras High Court's dismissal of petitions assailing Google's new user choice billing policy..While declining to stay the High Court order, CJI Chandrachud remarked,"They (Google) have succeeded before the High Court, how can we stay this? Let us issue notice on the petitions."The matter was directed to be listed next on March 19..Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for the app developers, while Senior Advocate Harish Salve appeared for Google..The High Court had in January this year dismissed the start-ups’ appeal against a single-judge verdict upholding the policy, which imposed a service fee of up to 26 per cent for download of paid apps and in-app purchases on the Google Play Store.While redirecting the appeals to the Competition Commission of India (CCI), the division bench of the High Court had granted the start-ups three weeks' interim protection against being delisted from Google Play Store..[Read Order]
