In an antitrust settlement with US states and consumers, Alphabet’s Google has agreed to pay $700 million and permit more competition in its Play app store, according to terms revealed on Monday in a federal court in San Francisco.
According to a statement from the corporation, Google will contribute $630 million to a consumer settlement fund and $70 million to a fund that will be utilised by the states.
Google was accused of overcharging customers by imposing illegitimate limits on the Android app store’s program distribution and charging needless fees for in-app purchases. It made no admission of guilt.
The deal still needs to be approved in full by the judge.
Prior to Google’s associated trial with “Fortnite” creator Epic Games, the contents of the settlement were kept secret. Lead plaintiff Utah and other states announced the settlement in September. Last week, a federal jury in California found in favour of Epic, finding that certain aspects of Google’s app store were anticompetitive.
The settlement, according to a statement from Google Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Policy Wilson White, “builds on Android’s choice and flexibility, maintains strong security protections, and retains Google’s ability to compete with other (operating system) makers, and invest in the Android ecosystem for users and developers.”
In addition to Play’s billing mechanism, the firm said it was extending the ability of app and game creators to provide customers an additional option for in-app purchases. Google claimed to have been testing “choice billing” for more than a year in the United States.
Google promised to make it easier for customers to download apps straight from developers as part of the settlement.
Next year, Epic plans to get an order from U.S. District Judge James Donato, who is considering both lawsuits, that might force Google to modify its Play store.
Google is being sued again over its search and online advertising policies. In those instances, it has denied any wrongdoing.
Google and the Canadian government previously came to an agreement in November over the display of news articles in search results. The tech giant has committed to giving Canadian news publishers an annual payment of C$100 million, as verified by the Minister of Canadian Heritage. With this agreement, Google, owned by Alphabet, won’t have to worry about Canada’s online news legislation. The goal of the law is to require IT majors to split their advertising profits with national news publishers.
