A recent ruling by the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU)  against Google underscores the urgent need for legal reform to tackle the expanding power of global tech platforms.

In a landmark ruling earlier this year, the KPPU fined Google Rp 202.5 billion (US$12.4 million) for abusing its dominant position in the Android App distribution market. The case focused on Google’s business practice of forcing app developers to use its proprietary payment system, Google Billing Payment, as the exclusive option for in-app transactions through the Play Store, which was deemed anticompetitive, giving Google unfair leverage in Indonesia’s app economy.

This victory highlights Indonesia’s growing struggle to regulate powerful digital platforms and exposes the limit of our antitrust framework.

Indonesia’s current primary competition legislation, Law No. 5/1999 on monopolistic practices and unfair business competition, is outdated and ill-equipped to address the challenges posed by the digital market.

The law focuses on traditional market structure but fails to account for the complexities of digital markets such as two-sided markets, the emerging practices of self-preferencing, data driven network effects or ecosystem-based exclusion.

Despite this, Indonesia’s long discussed revision of Law No. 5/1999 has stalled for years. Drafts have been circulated within ministries and parliament, yet no firm commitment has been made to adopt a digital-first competition framework. As a result, Indonesia’s regulators lack the tools needed to effectively regulate platforms in the digital age.