Social gaming platform WinZO has moved Delhi High Court challenging Google's recent Playstore policy (Play Store - Pilot for DFS & Rummy) for the selective inclusion of only Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) and Rummy on the Google Play Store, allegedly leaving out a large segment of skill gaming platforms and indie developers.
WinZO seeks restraint against Google from implementing the classification which will impact the reputation of WinZo's business.
Petitioner WinZO called the policy arbitrary, unfair and restrictive and states Google's policy can lead to distortions in the competitive Indian gaming ecosystem by resulting in unparalleled access to the 2.5 billion monthly active users across 190 countries where the Google Play Store is available.
"This will result in benefiting only a handful of players who are already in the monopoly for over a decade. The update is not only seen as anti-competitive but also as a death knell to innovation", says WinZO.
Every other app store in the country including the Apple Store, Vivo, Oppo, and MI Store allows all skill gaming products that are protected uniformly under the Constitution of India. Google, however, to date, did not allow any game with a pay-to-play format on the Google Play Store, plea stated
WinZO through a press statement states that IGoogle Playstore is the largest app distribution platform owning 97 percent market share in India, which is an Android-centric market.
On September 7, 2022, Google announced an update in its longstanding policy and decided to allow Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) and Rummy products on the Playstore in a year-long pilot starting September 28, 2022.
Reacting to Google's Updated policies and challenging the same, Saumya Singh Rathore, Co-founder, WinZO Games said, "Google Play, as a market leader, has a duty to act in a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory manner. There does not seem to be a reason for selecting only DFS and Rummy. There is no engagement with the industry to find out the dynamics. There is no evaluation of the impact that is likely to result from such a clearly discriminatory and arbitrary classification".
( With inputs from ANI )
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