An Indian appeals court ruled that Google’s app store billing policy is unfair and restrictive for developers, confirming the findings of the country’s antitrust regulator.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) initially fined Google 9.4 billion rupees (US$110 million) in 2022 for discriminating against apps using third-party billing on the Play Store.

However, the National Companies Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) reduced the penalty to 2.2 billion rupees (US$25.74 million) while upholding that Google abused its market dominance.

The detailed ruling from NCLAT has not yet been released, and Google has not provided a statement.

This decision adds to Google’s ongoing global antitrust challenges, including a 4.3 billion (US$4.66 billion) fine from the European Union over its Android ecosystem.

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