The renowned Tech-giant and the biggest search engine, Google has agreed to pay $700 million, and bring changes in its play store app to encourage competition as part of an antitrust settlement case with the consumers and some states of US.
According to the company filings in the San Francisco court, Google will pay $630 million to consumers, while the remaining $70 million will be going into the fund used by the states.
As per the settlement, every eligible consumer will be entitled to at least $2 and might receive additional payment based on their spending on Google Play from Aug 2016 – Sep 2023. The settlement was backed by all of the 50 states, plus the districts of Puerto Rico, Columbia, and Virgin Islands.
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The Accusation and hearings
The search engine giant, Google was accused of overbilling consumers on the distribution of apps on Android devices through restrictions that are seen as unlawful, it was also accused of charging unnecessary fees for in-app transactions. Though Google denied both the accusations.
The states’ and consumers’ attorneys had already announced the settlement in September, but kept it confidential amidst a related trial between Google and “Fortnite” developer Epic games. The trial concluded last week when a California Federal Jury deemed some part of Google’s business as uncompetitive.
The company said it was planning to expand the ability of developers and apps to provide an alternative billing option to consumers for in-app purchases, other than Google’s own billing system. This system has been in the pilot phase for more than a year in the US.
Google will also simplify the user’s ability to directly download apps from the developers, as part of the settlement.
How the Settlement has been viewed across the industry
As the news that Google has agreed to pay $700 million as a settlement for an antitrust case broke in the town, it spread like a wildfire and everyone in the industry started talking about it. The vice president of Google for government affairs and public policy, in a statement said “the settlement builds on Android’s choice and flexibility, maintains strong security restrictions, and retains Google’s ability to compete with other OS developers, and invest in the Android ecosystem for users and developers.”
The North Carolina Attorney told the Media on Tuesday that “the changes Google is required to adopt will result in more innovation among app developers and lower prices for consumers, and that was always our number one goal.”
He further noted that, “no other U.S. antitrust enforcer has yet been able to secure remedies of this magnitude from Google or another major digital platform”.
Epic public policy head Corie Wright said in a statement that the states’ settlement “did not address the core of Google’s unlawful and anticompetitive behavior.” people are of the view that Epic will press at the next phase of its trial “to truly open up the Android ecosystem.”
Moreover, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, in a tweet, said the states could have won a larger damages amount if they’d stayed in the fight a few weeks longer. However, this is not the first and won’t be the last lawsuit against Google accusing it of anti-competitive restrictions.
