Temporary Relief: Madras HC directs Google to charge Disney+Hotstar only 4% commission

The Madras High Court has passed an interim order, directing Google to charge Disney India only four percent commission for all payments made on the Disney + Hotstar app. The court also ordered Google to not remove the Disney + Hotstar app from the Google Play Store for as long as the matter is sub-judice.

A single-judge bench comprising Justice AT Usha ordered Disney+ Hotstar to furnish monthly accounting information to facilitate Google’s collection of the interim fee in a timely manner.

The order comes after the Walt Disney Company filed an appeal against Google, or more specifically, its in-app billing policy that compels apps to use the Google Play Billing System for all payments. App developers stand to pay Google a commission of anywhere between 11 percent and 26 percent for all payments on their respective apps.

Google's commission came into existence after an anti-trust directive ruled against its 15 to 30 percent levy, and forced the company to allow third-party payments.

However, Google clarified that the four percent commission that the Madras HC has directed it to collect applies only to Disney + Hotstar and is "temporary", as it applies to only the period in which legal proceedings last. A statement from Google read: "The order is interim in nature, and the temporary four percent figure is simply a fee that the developer will pay to Google each month while these legal proceedings play out".

Disney India is one of 15 companies to file an appeal against Google in the Madras High Court over the latter's billing policy — the other appellants include names like Matrimony.com, AltBalaji, Unacademy, QuackQuack and TrulyMadly. On Tuesday, Disney India's senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi appealed for an injunction against compulsion to use GPBS, and protection from being de-listed on the Google Play Store.