Zeeshan Mumtaz
ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), which is the economic competition regulatory body of the government of Pakistan, has taken notice of the multiple emerging concerns regarding mobile applications on the Google Play Store. These concerns are related to Google offering nano/micro personal loans to vulnerable customers, mostly to lower to middle-income class customers.
Google Play Store and CCP
After the appearance of a news report in a leading newspaper, an initial probe was conducted by authorities and it was noted that these mobile applications on the Google Play Store are offering nano loans without fulfilling the legal requirements of Non-Banking Micro Finance Companies (NBMFC’s) law.
NBMFC law and Google Play Store
The NBMFC law provides a framework to regulate nano-loans only above Rs 10,000, whereas most of these applications on the Google Play Store are only providing nano loans, less than Rs 10,000. According to the initial findings, these applications have well over 10 million downloads from the Google Play Store by the general public.
The preliminary findings inter alia revealed that these financing mobile applications had contradictions between interest rate/processing fee versus the advertised rates.
Google mobile apps and data security
There are also varieties of fake claims of data security and privacy, collecting personal data on the pretext of offering loans, differences in repayments, and credit range advertised vis a vis those actually offered.
The Competition Commission of Pakistan is the first regulatory body that formally initiated an investigation into the matter of financial disparity, fraud, and data security related to the Google Play Store in September 2022. The investigation of CCP is mandated to probe possible violations by these Google mobile applications under Section 10 of the Competition Act 2010.
