PANews reported on January 22 that according to TechCrunch, Indonesia's antitrust agency KPPU ruled that Google was fined 2.025 trillion rupiah (about 12.6 million US dollars) for its monopoly in the Google Play Store payment system. KPPU requires Google to stop forcing the use of the Google Play Billing (GPB) system and allow all developers to participate in the User Choice Payment (UCB) program, while providing at least 5% service fee discounts within one year after the ruling takes effect.
The investigation, which began in 2022, found that Google forced Indonesian developers to use the GPB system and charged fees of up to 30%, while prohibiting other payment options, resulting in a loss of users, a drop in transaction volume, and lost revenue. Google plans to appeal the ruling and says its current practices support healthy competition in the Indonesian app ecosystem.
Google has previously faced fines and regulatory investigations in India, South Korea, the European Union and other places for similar anti-competitive behavior. Japan's antitrust agency may be the next country to rule that it has violated antitrust laws.
