BRUSSELS : EU antitrust regulators have asked app developers whether Alphabet unit Google's threat to remove apps from its Play Store if they use other payment options instead of its own billing system has hurt their business, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The U.S. tech giant has said apps would be removed from its app store starting June this year if developers do not use its billing system. Regulators wanted to know if the change has forced developers to drop other payment options in favour of Google Billing and whether migrating users to another payment option affected the number of pre-existing users and the developers' access to data.
The EU competition enforcer also wanted to know if Google allowed them to use an alternative payment system, charged a service fee for this or complained about the security of their payment method.