Apple may face antitrust scrutiny because of a complaint registered with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) claiming that the tech giant has been abusing its dominant position through its App Store requiring start-ups and developers to only use its payment gateway and imposing stiff commissions on in-app purchases.

The complaint is filed by a Rajasthan-based non-profit organization claiming that Apple’s fee of up to 30 percent on the sale of digital goods and services or in-app purchases affects developers and customers, while also working as a barrier to market entry. Indian start-ups, which had earlier raised concerns on this issue, may also follow the proceedings as the CCI starts the probe. Apple App Store’s policy of not letting app developers use different payments gateways, which normally charge a 1.8-2 percent commission, affects the revenue margins of smaller developers and start-ups. This development comes two days after South Korea passed a Bill to stop Google and Apple from compelling app developers to use their in-app payment systems. Though Apple has been imposing a 30 percent commission, Google intends to do so from March 2022. The CCI is still reviewing the complaint and is yet to commence an investigation. Apple App Store and Google Play Store unitedly control greater than 95 percent of the app store market globally via iOS and Android. Both companies had cited the high infrastructure cost of running the app stores, to adjust which they would need to pass on a part of the cost to the developers.

Apple has been declaring various initiatives globally recently to counter similar allegations and probes faced across geographies. In a court settlement with US developers the previous week, Apple announced that it would create a $100-million fund for payouts to small app developers. The previous year, it reduced the commission to 15 percent for smaller app developers making up to $1 million in sales yearly from the App Store.