Tech giant Google moved to remove Disney’s app in one of the Mouse House’s largest markets in the world, India, but was met with a roadblock.
The Walt Disney Company often feels untouchable, and it’s no surprise why. Disney owns multiple properties in the entertainment industry, including 20th Century Studios, Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm. It’s a company that’s currently taking on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a legal battle that has rocked the state of Florida and made headlines for months. However, there are some giants that are big enough to take on the House of Mouse, and one of those companies is Google.
Disney is Involved in More Than One Lawsuit
While the feud with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is certainly one of the biggest stories right now, there’s another legal battle Disney has been fighting in a different country against the tech giant Google.
Google has been known to impose hefty service fees on the Google Play Store. The “service fees” range from 11 to 26 percent on in-app purchases. Disney in India has taken on the tech giant, taking them to court over these fees, and for the moment, Disney appears victorious.
An Indian Court Rules in Favor of Disney
Reuters reported that “Disney…has challenged Google’s new billing system in a court in India’s Tamil Nadu state. Its lawyers had argued Google was threatening to remove the Hotstar app if it didn’t comply with [the] new payments system.”
Disney runs the popular Disney+ Hotstar streaming app in India and opposed the new billing system and Google’s service fees. The court has also ordered that not only can Google not remove the Disney app from its store, it also has to reduce Disney’s fees to four percent.
As MSN reported, “[this] poses a substantial threat to the tech giant’s payments business model.”
The Walt Disney Company has a substantial presence in the United States with its four theme parks in its Central Florida Disney Resort (Magic Kingdom Park, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, among others) and Disneyland Resort, but it does have a global market and presence as well.
It appears that Disney is set on protecting all of its assets as best it can.
