No Free Trials / Auto-Renewing Subscriptions for Indian Users

Last Friday, Google sent us the following email:

Dear developer,

Due to the new Reserve Bank of India eMandate notification, new signups of auto-renewing subscriptions will be temporarily unavailable for users in India. All subscriptions continue to be available in the form of single access passes which provide users with a single billing period of access. At the end of the billing duration, users will need to sign up again to continue their subscription. This change will go into effect in early May. Additionally, until the ecosystem challenges are addressed, Google will temporarily pause free trials and introductory pricing in the India market (as the renewals would fail), and the price of the single access pass will be equivalent to the regular price you set for a single billing period of the subscription.

Stakeholders were given sufficient time to complete the process of migration to the framework by March 31, 2021. But Google waited to inform us until the end of April.

As you know, it’s Google that handles payments and takes a 30% cut out of our sales in return.

We have submitted a new update to the Play Store that’s pending Google’s approval. This release will remove the free trial notice for Indian users on the orange purchase screen and includes other updates about auto-renewing subscriptions.