Vernacular social gaming platform WinZO has approached the Delhi High Court to challenge Google Play Store’s recent policy for the selective inclusion of Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) and Rummy, leaving out other skill gaming platforms and indie developers. 

“WinZO seeks restraint against Google from implementing the arbitrary classification which will impact the reputation of WinZo’s business. WinZO is among many other industry players, such as MPL and Zupee, among others, who have called the policy arbitrary, unfair and restrictive,” WinZo said in a statement.

It believes that Google’s policy can lead to distortions in the competitive Indian gaming ecosystem through unparalleled access to the 2.5 billion monthly active users across 190 countries where Google Play Store is available. This will benefit a handful of players who are already in monopoly for over a decade. The update is not only anti-competitive but also a death-knell to innovation, it said.

“Every other app store of the country including Apple Store, Vivo, Oppo, MI Store allows all skill gaming products that are protected uniformly under the Constitution of India. Google, however, till date, did not allow any game with a pay-to-play format on the Google Play Store. It is noteworthy that Google Playstore is the largest app distribution platform owning 97 per cent market share in India, which is an Android-centric market,” WinZo said.

On September 7, Google announced an update in its longstanding policy, and decided to allow Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) and Rummy products on the Play Store in a year-long pilot starting September 28.

Saumya Singh Rathore, Co-founder, WinZO Games, said,“Google Play, as a market leader, has a duty to act in a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory manner. There does not seem to be a reason for selecting only DFS and Rummy. There is no engagement with industry to find out the dynamics. There is no evaluation of the impact that is likely from such a discriminatory and arbitrary classification. Above all, we fail to understand how Google is being permitted to select that, within a set of legal / legitimate businesses, only two will be onboarded and the others excluded.

“This policy will not only reduce the marketing cost for players in monopoly to a quarter of their earlier spends but also create a false perception of legitimation of DFS and Rummy over all other games such as Carrom, Chess, Quiz, etc. In the fast-evolving sunrise sector gaming, a level playing field is key to innovation and success. Year-long pilot is detrimental to thousands of companies and can lead to irreversible market distortion of a fast-moving gaming tech industry, leading to death of many players as the strong gets stronger”

WinZO has sought an injunction restraining Google from implementing its revised Play Store policy. And a ruling that Google must allow all apps offering games of skill on its Play Store and not just a select few. WinZO argues that Google’s policy wrongfully interferes with WinZO’s business, causing commercial injury. Moreover, the policy casts doubt over Google’s stated position as an intermediary, which is obliged to maintain platform neutrality.

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