New: Settlement Tentative of Google Play Direct-to-Consumer Antitrust Lawsuit Announced -
On Tuesday, Sept. 6, a tentative settlement was reached in an action brought from 37 U.S. states against Alphabet's Google.
These are key information about the case and what this could mean for businesses that sell an online product through Google's U.S. Play Store.
What is the Google antitrust lawsuit?
In Utah v. Google, 37 attorneys general claim that Google uses unconstitutional, anti-competitive, or unfair practices that restrict competition, drive up prices and restrict choices, all of which harm consumers that purchase games and other digital items on the Google Play store.
It was brought by Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes, the lawsuit focuses on "exclusionary conduct relating to the Google Play Store for Android," with actions such as shutting out other app distribution channels and mandating to use Google Billing (with up to 30% commission for Google).
The lawsuit is led by AGs who are located in New York, North Carolina, and Tennessee The 37 total AGs represent 21 million consumers who are affected by the suit.
What has happened within the Google antitrust lawsuit?
The settlement has been disclosed However, the specifics are not yet available. The court must approve the settlement, but participants in the settlement (including Utah's AG) are asking for the Nov. 6 trial be cancelled.
Google has denied any wrongdoing, and has not yet commented on this new development.
There's no time frame on when details will be revealed, however since it is a class action lawsuit The details will be made public once the case is fully concluded.
What can it mean for game developers and app developers within the US or other countries?
If the terms of the settlement include relaxing the Google's existing Play Store restrictions and the obligation to utilize Google Billing This could be a major benefit for games and apps developers seeking to broaden the way they market their app by making use of cheaper direct-to-consumer solutions similar to .
According to a statement published on Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes' website The 30% commission "is much higher than the amount consumers would pay in the event they had the option to pick the Google's rival instead." The lawsuit says Google did not keep the promise it made to keep Android "open open source" to ensure that device makers as well as app developers could develop applications without any constraints.
We won't know the full consequences until the details of the settlement are made public.
What about Apple?
You may already be aware of Epic Games' case against Apple in relation to similar issues. After Epic promoted its Fortnite players to make use of its own payment system by offering discounts to them, both Apple as well as Google took down Fortnite out of their stores for apps. Epic later sued Apple and Google in separate cases.
This past April, a 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decided on the Apple case with mixed results. They agreed with Apple and said that the App Store does not violate federal antitrust laws, but they also backed a lower court's ruling in favor of Epic in stating that Apple's prohibition against allowing app devs from sending customers to non-App Store payment methods violated California's Unfair Competition Law.
Epic requested for the U.S. Supreme court to permit the injunction to be effective and to force Apple to change its App Store practices even though Apple has yet to contest the ruling. But in August, the SCOTUS ruled against Epic's petition, suggesting that changes may not be applied until appeals have been concluded.
Epic isn't part in the Utah case v. Google case, since they're in their own legal case (with Match Group) against Google. But Epic's chief executive Tim Sweeney posted on social media that "If Google is ending its payments monopoly and not imposing an Google Tax on third-party transactions, we'll settle and be Google's friend in their new world."
How can it help game developers by facilitating direct-to-consumer transactions as well as subscriptions?
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The Utah Attorney General's website hosts additional resources related to this issue.