India: Announced Competition Commission of India Investigation into Google Pay for Alleged Self-Preferencing Practices

On 9 November 2020, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) opened an investigation into Google over three alleged violations. The investigation is the result of an anonymous informant filing the information with the CCI. Firstly, the CCI claims that Google abused its position due to the pre-installation of Google Pay on Android smartphones, which led to “status-quo bias” and put third-party apps and other payment systems at a disadvantage. Secondly, CCI alleges that Google made the use of the Google Play Store and the Google Play In-App Billing system mandatory. Finally, the CCI stated that Google discriminated against other payment systems by obliging app developers to use its payment system when wanting to place their applications in the Google Play Store.