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Google Reaches Settlement in Antitrust Lawsuit Over US Play Store

By  |  September 6, 2023

Google has tentatively settled a class action suit alleging that its US Play Store had violated US federal antitrust rules by overcharging customers. The settlement was reached ahead of a planned trial that was set for November and involves more than 30 states representing 21 million consumers.

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    According to Bloomberg, the proposed settlement is subject to approval from Google’s parent company, Alphabet, as well as collective approval from the 36 states and Washington, D.C. involved in the lawsuit.

    Details of the settlement were not revealed, but the class action lawsuit claimed that consumers would’ve spent less on apps and had more options if it weren’t for Google’s alleged monopoly.

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    Google is currently battling multiple antitrust showdowns from earlier this year. One of them includes Epic Games’ challenge of the company’s enforcement of its Play Store app policies, which has yet to be settled.

    Read more: Google’s Latest Play Store Suit Gets Class Action Status

    Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said in a statement on X that they are not part of the proposed Google Play settlement, but that they’d be willing to “settle and be Google’s friend in their new era” if Google ends their payments monopoly “without imposing a Google Tax on third-party transactions.”

    Match Group, another company that filed a similar claim against Google, gave no comment about the settlement. But last year, Google settled claims with a group of app developers, agreeing to pay $90 million and make it easier for companies to tell their customers about lower prices outside of their apps. It also still allows rival app stores on its phones.

    It’s unknown for now what the outcomes of these legal tussles with Google will be, but according to a statement from a spokesperson for the Utah Attorney General’s office, the settlement is “in the best interests of consumers.”

    Source: BNN Bloomberg