Information: A Tentative Settlement of Google's Direct-to-Consumer antitrust lawsuit Announced -
On the Tuesday of September. 6, an elusive settlement was agreed upon in a class action lawsuit brought from 37 U.S. states against Alphabet's Google.
These are key information concerning the matter and what this could mean for businesses that sell a digital product via Google's U.S. Play Store.
What's the Google antitrust suit about?
In Utah v. Google, 37 attorneys general argue that Google employs illegal, anticompetitive, and/or unfair practice which hinder competition, raise costs, and make it difficult to choose, all of which affect consumers who purchase games and other digital items via the Google Play store.
It was brought by Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes, the suit focuses on "exclusionary actions relating to 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 suit is co-led by AGs in New York, North Carolina as well as Tennessee, and the 37 total AGs represent 21 million consumers who are affected by the suit.
What happened recently in the Google antitrust lawsuit?
A settlement has been made public, but details have not been released. The court must accept the settlement, however those who are part of the settlement (including the Utah's AG) have asked for the November. 6 trial be canceled.
Google had denied wrongdoing and has not yet commented on this new development.
There's currently no date for when the details are expected to be made public, however since it is a class action lawsuit it is likely that the information are expected to be public after the lawsuit is settled.
What could this mean for game or app developers in the US or otherwise?
If the conditions of the agreement include easing Google's current Play Store restrictions and the necessity to make use of Google Billing which is a payment method, it could be an enormous benefit for games and apps developers seeking to broaden the way they sell their apps by using less expensive, direct-to-consumer methods such as .
According to a statement published on Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes' website, Google's 30% commission "is significantly higher than the commission that consumers would pay in the event they had the option to select one of Google's competitors instead." The lawsuit claims Google did not keep its word that it would make Android "open open source" so that device manufacturers as well as app developers could develop applications without any constraints.
The full implications until the terms of the settlement have been officially made public.
What is it about Apple?
You may already be familiar with Epic Games' case against Apple concerning similar concerns. After Epic encouraged its Fortnite players to make use of its own payment method by offering discounts to them, both Apple and Google have removed Fortnite from their app stores. Epic then sued both Apple and Google in separate cases.
In April of this year, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decided on the Apple appeal, with conflicting results. They sided with Apple and said that the App Store doesn't violate Federal antitrust laws. However they also backed a lower court's ruling in favor of Epic, stating the Apple's restriction against allowing app devs from sending users to different non-App Store payment methods violated California's Unfair Competition Law.
Epic filed a petition with for the U.S. Supreme court to let the injunction take effect and also force Apple to alter the App Store policies, even though Apple continues to appeal the ruling. In August, the SCOTUS ruled against Epic's petition and suggested that the changes may not be applied until appeals have been completed.
Epic isn't part of the Utah case v. Google case, since they're in an individual case (with Match Group) against Google. However, Epic's Chief Executive Tim Sweeney posted on the social networks that "If Google is ending its payments monopoly without imposing an Google Tax on third party transactions, we'll settle it and become Google's ally in the new era."
What can it do to assist game designers with direct-to-consumer payment as well as subscriptions?
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The Utah Attorney General's website contains other resources related to the matter.