Google app payments under probe by Indonesia’s antitrust agency

Google has been fined more than 8 billion euros ($7.99 billion) by the European Union in the last decade for anti-competitive practices

Indonesia's anti-trust agency (KPPU) said on Thursday it is investigating potential unfair business practices by Google over the use of proprietary payment services for its software distribution platform Google Play Store.

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The move follows similar investigations by antitrust regulators globally involving Alphabet Inc.'s Google.

"KPPU suspects that Google has conducted an abuse using its dominant position, conditional sales and discriminatory practices in digital application distribution in Indonesia," it said in a statement.

An initial investigation found that since June 1, Indonesian app developers had been required to use Google's payment system, which charges a 15% to 30% fee, the KPPU said.

The amount charged by Google Pay Billing is much higher than other services, which cost under 5% before the requirement took effect, it said.

If apps did not comply, they risked being removed from Google Play Store, it added.