New: Settlement Tentative of Google Play Direct-to-Consumer Antitrust Lawsuit Announced -
On Tuesday, Sept. 6, an elusive settlement was agreed upon in an action brought from 37 U.S. states against Alphabet's Google.
Here are some key details about the case and what this could mean for businesses that sell an online product through Google's U.S. Play Store.
What's the Google antitrust lawsuit?
In Utah v. Google, 37 attorneys general claim that Google is using unconstitutional, anti-competitive, or unlawful business practices which hinder competition, raise costs, and make it difficult to choose, all of which harm consumers that purchase games and other digital goods via Google Play. Google Play store.
Led by Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes, the suit focuses on "exclusionary conduct relating to the Google Play Store for Android," with actions such as closing other apps distribution channels, and demanding the use of Google Billing (with up to 30% commission for Google).
The lawsuit is led by AGs in New York, North Carolina, and Tennessee as well as the 37 AGs comprise 21 million customers in the action.
What has happened within the Google antitrust suit?
A settlement has been made public However, the specifics were not released. The court has to approve the settlement, but those who are part of the settlement (including the Utah's AG) have requested for the trial on Nov. 6 trial be cancelled.
Google had denied wrongdoing and had not commented about this development.
There's no time frame on when details will be revealed, however since it is the result of a class action suit The details are expected to be public after the case is fully settled.
What could this mean for game or app developers in the US or otherwise?
If the conditions of the agreement include easing the Google's existing Play Store restrictions and the necessity to make use of Google Billing which is a payment method, it could be a huge win for app and game developers who want to expand the ways they market their app by making use of cheaper direct-to-consumer methods similar to .
According to a statement found on Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes' website the 30% Google commission "is more than the commission that users would be paying when they were able to pick one of Google's competitors instead." The suit claims Google didn't keep its word that it would keep Android "open source" so that device manufacturers and app developers could create applications without any restrictions.
The full consequences until the details of the settlement are declared.
What is it about Apple?
You may already be familiar with Epic Games' case against Apple in relation to similar issues. After Epic offered Fortnite gamers to pay using its own payment system by offering discounts to them, both Apple and Google have removed Fortnite from their app stores. Epic later sued Apple and Google in different cases.
In April of this year, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decided on the Apple decision with mixed outcomes. They agreed with Apple that their App Store does not violate federal antitrust laws, but they also concurred with an earlier ruling by a lower court favor of Epic in stating the Apple's restriction against the app developer from directing users to other non-App Store payment methods violated California's Unfair Competition Law.
Epic petitioned the U.S. Supreme court to permit the injunction to be effective and to force Apple to alter the App Store's practices even though Apple is still appealing the ruling. But in August, the Supreme Court ruled against Epic's petition, suggesting that changes may not be applied until appeals are finalized.
Epic is not part in the Utah v. Google case, since they're in their own legal case (with Match Group) against Google. However, Epic's chief executive Tim Sweeney posted on the social networks that "If Google is ending its payment monopoly, without having to impose a Google Tax on third-party transactions, we'll settle and become Google's ally in the new age."
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The Utah Attorney General's site contains additional resources related to this issue.