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News: Tentative Settlement in Google Play Direct-to Consumer Antitrust Lawsuit posted on

Sep 17, 2023

The previous day, the. 6, an unresolved settlement was reached on the class action lawsuit brought by 37 U.S. states against Alphabet's Google.

Here are the key information about the current situation as well as what the potential implications could be to companies offering products online using Google's U.S. Play Store.

What exactly is the Google antitrust lawsuit?

In Utah v. Google, 37 attorneys general assert that Google uses illegal, anticompetitive, and/or unfair commercial strategies which restrict market access, increase costs, and make it difficult to choose and can affect the consumers buying games or other digital products on Google Play. Google Play store.

The suit was filed by Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes, the suit alleges "exclusionary actions relating to Google Play Store for Android," with actions such as closing other apps distribution channels, and demanding the usage for Google Billing (with up to 30% of the revenue going directly to Google).

The suit is driven by AGs who reside within New York, North Carolina and Tennessee, and the 37 AGs comprise 21 million people that will be affected by the lawsuit.

   What happened recently within the Google antitrust lawsuit?  

The settlement has been made public However, the specifics are not yet available. The court will decide if it will approve of the settlement. But, the those who are parties to the settlement (including the AG of Utah) AG) are asking for the November. 6 trial to be postponed.

Google has denied any wrongdoing, and did not comment about this development.

There's no timeline on when data is likely to be published but since it's the result of a class-action suit it's likely that data will be released after the case is settled.

What does this mean to game developers or app creators in the US or different nations?

If the terms of the agreement include easing Google's existing Play Store restrictions and the necessity to make use of Google Billing which is a payment option, it can be a major win for app and game developers seeking to expand the ways they sell their apps by using direct-to-consumer, less expensive payment methods that are similar to .

According to an announcement via Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes' website the 30 percent Google commission "is more than what consumers would have to pay if they had the option to pick the rival to Google." The lawsuit claims Google is not keeping its commitment to keep Android "open open source" to ensure that device makers and developers of apps were able to create applications without putting them under unnecessary restrictions.

We will not know the full implications until the specifics of the settlement are officially made public.

What's the deal with Apple?

It is likely that you are aware of Epic Games' case against Apple concerning similar concerns. In the wake of Epic allowed Fortnite gamers the chance to pay using its own payment method, offering discounts in exchange for discounts Apple along with Google removed Fortnite in their app stores. Epic then sued both Apple and Google in two separate suits.

In April, the month that ended in which an appeals court of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decided regarding the Apple decision, but with mixed results. The court was in favor of Apple in determining that its App Store doesn't violate the federal antitrust law. However, they also agreed to the ruling of a lower court favor of Epic and concluded that Apple's prohibition of the developer of the app from directing customers to other App Store payment options was in violation of the state's Unfair Competition Law.

Epic petitioned for the U.S. Supreme court to let the injunction take effect and to make it mandatory for Apple to change the App Store policies however Apple has continued to challenge the ruling. In August, the SCOTUS ruled against Epic's request in a ruling that suggested adjustments may not be implemented until appeals have been concluded.

Epic isn't part of the Utah v. Google case, since they're in their own legal case (with Match Group) against Google. However, Epic's CEO Tim Sweeney posted on social media that "If Google is ending its payment monopoly and not needing to implement the Google Tax on third party transactions, we'll settle and become Google's ally in the new age."

What can it do to assist game designers by making it easier to facilitate the direct-to-consumer transaction as well as subscriptions?

In addition, our solutions include a platform that offers an JavaScript Store Builder Library to enable you for quick integration into your application or game.

 More Information

The Utah Attorney General's website contains more resources related to the issue.

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