Google agreed to pay $700 million to settle with US states related to behavior on the Google Play app market.
A week after losing an important antitrust case to game maker Epic, Google announced the terms of a settlement of a 2021 lawsuit by US state attorneys general related to the Google Play marketplace.
US states accuse Google of illegally dominating the Android application market and charging users too much.
Google is facing a number of antitrust lawsuits across the United States. (Photo: Insider)
On December 18, Google said it would pay $700 million and change Google Play policies to allow developers to collect money from customers directly, avoiding 15-30% fees on the market.
Of this $700 million, $630 million is distributed to users and the remaining $70 million is paid to states.
Eligible users will receive at least $2 based on Google Play purchases from August 16, 2016 to September 30, 2023.
In addition, Google will let users download applications from developers without going through Google Play. Developers are also allowed to display multiple pricing options to customers.
The settlement was first announced in September but details were only revealed yesterday.
According to the New York Times, Google wants to use it as a model to address other criticisms of its app market policies, including Epic Games.
Last week, a judge ruled in favor of Epic Games in its lawsuit with Google and found Google violated anti-competition laws by maintaining an illegal monopoly in Google Play.
In a December 18 announcement, Google said that although it wants to reverse the verdict and the lawsuit with Epic has not ended, it is still committed to continuing to improve Android and Google Play.
However, antitrust lawsuits against Google do not stop at the app market. The Internet “giant” is facing another lawsuit from the US Department of Justice over anti-competitive behavior in the search market.
Google paid 36% of Safari search revenue to Apple to be the default search engine on this browser.
Attorneys for the states involved in the lawsuit said no major law enforcement agency in the United States has been able to secure remedies of this magnitude from Google or another major digital platform.
But Epic Public Policy Director Corie Wright wrote on X that the agreement does not address the core of Google’s illegal and anti-competitive behavior.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney also believes states could win a larger payout “if they fought for a few more weeks.”
(Theo Insider, Reuters)
