As part of a judgement by India’s antitrust commission, Google will enable Android app and game developers to provide third-party payment options beginning next month. When setting up a new Android phone or tablet, customers can also select their preferred search engine.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) penalised Google $162 million in October last year for “abusing its dominant position in several markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem.” The CCI has also issued several guidelines to guarantee that Android users should have the freedom to pick their search engine and to uninstall pre-installed Google apps such as Google Maps.
Google is forced under these guidelines to allow smartphone manufacturers to “licence each Google app individually to pre-install on devices and create their software forks and incompatible variants.” “We take local rules and regulations in India seriously,” Google stated. “Recent Competition Commission of India (CCI) guidelines for Android and Play need major adjustments for India, and we informed CCI today how we would comply with their requirements.”
Previously, Google unsuccessfully tried to overturn the CCI ruling, claiming that “tremendous progress in the expansion of the ecosystem of device manufacturers, application developers, and users is on the verge of being stopped due to corrective measures.” As a result, the company will continue to “respectfully question some parts of CCI’s decisions.”
