Forced to ditch cashback campaign, Paytm says accusing Google of double standards
Global internet giant Google’s Play store rules forced Paytm to roll back a UPI cashback campaign which is legal in India, digital payments company Paytm claimed on Sunday. The business in a blog page alleged that it had been arm-twisted to take down its campaign while Google Pay has been running similar cricket-based promotions.
Google had blocked Paytm on its Play store following a policy update on September 18, prior to the IPL cricket tournament, to disallow applications that support any unregulated gambling but restored the mobile app after a couple of hours after it rolled back the campaign.
The homegrown financial services firm Paytm said that it had been forced to adhere to Google’s mandate to eliminate the UPI cashback and scratch cards campaign to get re-listed on the Android Play Store.
“Offering both is legal in India, and cashback was being given following all regulations set by the federal government,” Paytm said.
The digital payments firm alleged that it had been “arm-twisted” by the internet search engine major to adhere to its biased app Play Store policies “that are meant to artificially create Google’s market dominance.”
Paytm in the blog page said that Google Pay has started its Tez Shots Campaign which evidently says, “Score Runs to earn assured rewards worth up to Rs 1 lakh” at the beginning of this cricket season itself.
No immediate comments were forthcoming from Google about them.
Paytm in its blog page said in the Tez Shots game a user can play as much times as they want and earn vouchers they can unlock at each milestone.
Finally, they be eligible for a lucky draw through which they get assured tickets up to Rs 1 lakh with any qualifying payment. For different scores starting from 50 to all the best way to 1000 and they also also earn rewards and discounts on different services that they avail via the Google Pay app, Paytm said in the blog.
“Presumably, such cashback campaigns of Google Pay are not in breach of play store policies, or maybe they are, but a different group of rules connect with Google’s own apps,” the digital payments firm said.
Paytm said that it launched a campaign on September 11 where users could gather cricket stickers and scratch cards to earn UPI cashback.
The offer was applicable on recharges, utility payments, UPI money transfers, and adding money to wallet and on September 18 at 11:30 AM, the business received the first email from Google Play Support informing that the Paytm Android iphone app had been delisted.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma-run digital payments firm alleged that it had been not given any possibility to respond to their concerns or put forth views.
“We maintain our promotional campaign was within guidelines, and there is no violation. It had been also not linked to gambling in virtually any manner whatsoever,” Paytm added its blog.
Paytm said the Google Play Support team wrote to them on three occasions-on August 20, August 28 and on September 1, with some concerns on another matter of Paytm First Games’ promotion through the Paytm application for a few alleged previous “policy violations”.
“While we strenuously disagreed with the allegation that we are breaching the policy (and we disagree with the policy itself too), we immediately complied with the diktat that barred us from promoting our gaming subsidiary,” it mentioned in the blog.
Paytm First Games can conveniently execute a paid promotion on Google-owned YouTube but it is not permitted to do the same advertisement on the Paytm application as per Google Policy, Paytm stated.
“We've been prompt and responsible in solving Google’s concerns and comply with their directions. Google’s recent action on the delisting of the Paytm iphone app as a result of a UPI cashback campaign is unjustified. We reiterate our cashback campaign was within guidelines, and there was no violation,” Paytm said.
It added that as a country India shouldn't beholden to such tech giants.
