Google has reportedly been ordered by Indonesia’s antitrust agency to pay fines of 202 billion rupiah (about $12.4 million) for alleged unfair business practices.
The agency found that the company abused its dominant position by threatening to remove app developers from its Google Play app store if they did not use its Google Pay Billing payment system services, Reuters reported Tuesday (Jan. 21).
It also found that Google Pay Billing charged higher rates than other payment systems, with fees of up to 30%, according to the report.
Reached by PYMNTS, a Google spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the company “strongly disagrees” with the agency’s decision and will appeal.
“Our current practices foster a healthy, competitive Indonesian app ecosystem, offering a secure platform, global reach, and choice, including user choice billing — which enables alternatives to Google Play’s billing system,” the statement said.
Google also has a number of initiatives that support Indonesian developers, according to the statement.
“We remain committed to complying with Indonesian law and will continue collaborating with the KPPU and stakeholders throughout the appeals process,” the statement said.
Indonesia’s antitrust agency, the KPPU, announced the launch of its investigation of Google’s business practices in September 2022.
“KPPU suspects that Google has conducted an abuse using its dominant position, conditional sales and discriminatory practices in digital application distribution in Indonesia,” the agency said at the time.
It said Google controlled a 93% market share in Indonesia, which is a country of 270 million people and has a fast-growing digital economy.
Google has faced legal challenges around its Google Play store policies in other countries as well.
In the United States, Google said in a November court filing that a judge’s ruling in an antitrust case brought by Epic Games should be thrown out. The ruling — which Google contested — would force the tech giant to make changes to its Google Play app store.
Epic sued Google and Apple in August 2020, alleging that they blocked competition for rival app stores, and a jury decided in December 2023 that Google violated antitrust law by making revenue-sharing agreements with device makers that block rival app stores.
In the United Kingdom, Google said in April 2023 that it wanted to give developers promoting apps on its British Play store more billing choices.
The tech giant proposed allowing developers to use third-party payment processors for in-app transactions after the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) began a probe of Google’s system in which developers were forced to use the company’s in-house billing system.
It was reported in December that spending across Apple’s App Store and Google Play reached $127.3 billion in 2024, up from $110 billion the previous year.