Google has been at the center of several controversies, most of which center around monopoly. The internet giant's behavior with its Play Store is also another aspect of several lawsuits. Google has announced that under the Telecommunications Business Act, users will be allowed to use third-party payment methods.
However, at this stage, the cost for users using third-party payments is only 4% less. This situation shows that Google will charge high fees regardless of how you pay.
Currently, when using Google Pay for in-app payments, Google commissions between 30% and 10%. Google told developers that when using third-party payment methods, commissions are reduced to 26-6%. This means that the reduction is only 4%.
However, there are some objections to this policy. According to Google's statement above, Google charges a fee regardless of the payment method. The content providers said that after taking into account the additional fees required by third-party payment platforms, the 4% difference is mostly equivalent to no difference at all.
South Korean Democratic Party lawmaker Cho Seung-lae noted, "Google pretends to give developers and users more options, but has not made any changes to high costs." The Korea Communications Commission also said it will continue to monitor Google's charging policy.
Google fined 2 million rubles in Russia
Yesterday, a Moscow court fined Google 2 million rubles (approximately $28). This fine is imposed because the company did not remove content that Russia considers illegal. In fact, this is only part of a wider dispute between Russia and Google. Back in late 085, Russia fined the company 2018 rubles (about $500) for failing to remove certain items from search results as required by law.
Since then, the Internet giant has been fined several times in Russia. In the middle of last month, Russia's communications regulatory agency, Roskomnadzor, said the company had failed to pay a fine of 32,5 million rubles (about $458). To this end, Roskomnadzor also stated that a huge fine is expected to be imposed in the near future.
Roskomnadzor announced that it will seek the imposition of a fine in the amount of 5% to 20% of its annual turnover in Russia. It could be up to $240 million. The reason is that the American manufacturer has repeatedly not removed content that was considered illegal. It will be the harshest punishment Russia has ever imposed on foreign technology companies. Google recently announced that it has paid a fine of more than 32 million rubles (approximately $458) to Russia.
