By Corinne Murdock |
Arizona’s Android users should keep an eye out: they may receive a piece of a recent $700 million settlement over Google’s Play Store monopoly.
In addition to paying out millions to affected consumers, Google will initiate anticompetitive reforms concerning billing systems, app store monopolization, and third-party apps and stores.
Google agreed to reforms including the installation of third-party apps on phones outside of Google Play such as third-party app stores for at least seven years; allowing developers to offer alternative, cheaper in-app billing systems alongside Google Play’s billing system for at least five years; abstaining from requiring developers to price-match in-app purchases on Google Play versus alternative billing systems for at least five years; abstaining from requiring developers to launch their apps at the same time with the same or better features on Google Play as on other app stores for at least four years; abstaining from requiring the Play Store to be the pre-loaded app store on a device for at least five years; abstaining from requiring manufacturers to obtain its consent prior to preloading a third-party app store on a mobile device for at least five years; and maintaining functionality of a third-party app store for at least four years.
Those eligible for the restitution, totaling $630 million, are consumers who made purchases between August 2016 and September 2023. All 50 states, including Arizona, and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands will receive $70 million for their claims.
Eligible consumers don’t have to submit a claim. They will receive automatic payments through PayPal, Venmo, or with permission a check.
Attorneys general from California, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah led the lawsuit against Google: Utah v. Google. Utah initiated the lawsuit in 2021 with a coalition of 37 attorneys general, including former Attorney General Mark Brnovich, following several years of investigations into Google beginning in 2019.
The attorneys general accused the tech giant of monopolizing app store availability and, therefore, limiting choice and driving up app prices. The states accused Google of engaging in exclusionary conduct: shutting out competing app distribution channels and requiring consumers to pay inflated prices for in-app purchases, namely by requiring apps to run in-app payments through their payment processing services.
Investigatory efforts accused Google of originally launching and marketing Android OS as an “open source” platform. The model attracted original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Samsung and mobile network operators (MNOs) such as Verizon.
After successfully attracting the desired OEMs and MNOs, Google closed the Android OS system and its app distribution market by requiring the OEMs and MNOs to enter restrictive, anticompetitive contracts.
Announcement of the $700 million settlement came just weeks before another, potentially greater settlement that Google entered into as part of a $5 billion lawsuit over the tech giant’s practice of tracking users’ internet activity while in “incognito” mode.
A formal agreement for court approval is expected by late February in that case.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
