The Silicon Review ^Asia

Popular tech giant Google is now facing scrutiny in India from its competition watchdog. This was over an allegation made by the watchdog that Google’s payment platform is implementing unfair business practices. A detailed investigation is underway by the Competition Commission of India because the director-general is investigating the allegations made against Google. The watchdog submitted a 36-page order, and it highlights various violations and provisions under the Competition Act. This includes unfair use of dominant market position, denial of market access, and the imposition of discriminatory and unfair conditions. The watchdog will also review the claims in regards to Google unfairly altering results that are shown on the Play Store to create a favorable condition for the Google Pay app.

 Five entities are under this investigation, namely Google LLC, Google India Pvt Ltd, Google Ireland Ltd, Google India Digital Services Pvt Ltd, and Alphabet Inc. The anonymous informant also alleged that the company is prompting Google Pay to be used for the in-app purchases, and paid apps on Play Store are also forced to mandate to support Google Pay. Google actively competes with other payment apps in the Indian market, like Paytm, Walmart-owned Phonepe, and others. Recently, Facebook-owned WhatsApp had also rolled out a new payment feature.