Supreme Court agrees to hear startups ‘ plea against Google’s billing policy

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear pleas by a group of startups challenging tech giant Google’s new user choice billing (UCB) policy.

The Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, however, refused to pass any interim orders protecting the startups from being removed from Google’s Play Store. This means Google may choose to remove the apps of these startups if they are not in agreement with the billing policy.

Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Balbir Singh, who appeared for the startups, urged the court to protect them till the case is disposed of as they are small companies. The apex refused to do so.