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Start-ups have got a temporary relief in the ongoing Google Play billing case with tech giant Google on Friday making a gentleman’s promise before Madras High Court that it will not until August 18 remove or delist the apps of 16 domestic start-ups and other companies that had challenged its new user choice billing (UCB) system for its Playstore on android devices.
A division bench of the Madras High Court comprising Chief Justice S V Gangapurwala and Justice P D Audikesavulu was hearing an appeal against a single judge order that dismissed 14 (all start-ups) out of 16 petitions filed by mostly start-ups against Google’s updated UCB policy that came into effect on April 26. The next date of hearing on this matter has been fixed for August 18.
Appearing for Google India, senior advocate Sajan Poovayya told the Court that a reply would be filed on why no interim relief must be granted to the appellant companies till August 18.
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The Division Bench had asked Google to file a reply to the batch of appeals filed by start-ups including Bharat Matrimony, Shaadi.com, Kutumb and Unacademy challenging the single judge’s order of last week denying relief to start-ups.
Senior Advocate and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram appeared for the appellant companies (start-ups) on Friday.
It maybe recalled that Justice Sounthar of Madras High Court had last week dismissed the suits of 14 domestic start-ups and redirected the plea challenging Google Play billing policy case to the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
He had observed that the Competition Act 2002 was enacted as a special law to deal with the abuse of dominant position by enterprises and that special law will prevail over the general law. Also Section 61 of Competition Act 2002 expressly barred the jurisdiction of a civil court on matters that fell within CCI’s jurisdiction, it was pointed out. Single judge ruled that the matter fell within the jurisdiction of CCI and not the civil court (Madras HC).
Domestic start-ups who were aggrieved over this order have now moved the Division Bench of the Madras High Court in appeal.
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