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SAN FRANCISCO – Alphabet's Google will pay $700 million and revamp its Play app store to allow more competition as part of an antitrust settlement with U.S. states and consumers, according to the company's filings in federal court in San Francisco on Monday Documents.
Under the settlement, which still requires final approval from a judge, Google will pay $630 million into a consumer settlement fund and $70 million into a fund used by states.
According to the Utah Attorney General's Office, Utah is expected to receive a total of about $15 million from payments to consumers and payments directly to the state.
The settlement states that eligible consumers will receive at least $2 and may receive additional payments based on their spending on Google Play between August 16, 2016 and September 30, 2023.
All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands joined the settlement.
Google has been accused of overcharging consumers through illegal restrictions on the distribution of apps on Android devices and unnecessary fees for in-app transactions. There was no admittance of wrongdoing.
“States are fiercely combating the greed and abuses of certain Big Tech on multiple fronts,” said Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes. “Utah has been a leader and driving force in holding Google accountable over the past decade. This was highlighted again in this case, as our fantastic AG antitrust team was one of the first and loudest advocates for investigating and filing a lawsuit over Google Play payments.”
Reyes said in a statement Tuesday that Utah had pushed to initiate the case and helped guide it to a resolution “despite the risks and Google's massive defense.”
“We are very pleased that the settlement contains many of the injunctive relief we seek that will change Google’s behavior. The dollar amounts are an added bonus to provide relief to Utahns who use Android apps,” he said.
Reyes' statement said that people eligible for a refund do not have to file a claim – they will receive automatic payments via PayPal or Venmo, or they can choose to receive a check or ACH transfer.
Attorneys for the states and consumers announced the settlement in September, but the terms were kept confidential ahead of the related trial between Google and “Fortnite” maker Epic Games. A California federal jury last week agreed with Epic that parts of Google's app business were anticompetitive.
Wilson White, Google vice president of government affairs and public policy, said in a statement that the agreement “builds on Android's choice and flexibility, maintains strong security measures, and preserves Google's ability to compete with and into other (operating system) manufacturers.” “Android ecosystem for users and developers.”
The company said it is expanding the ability of app and game developers to offer consumers an alternative billing option for in-app purchases alongside Play's billing system. Google said it has been piloting Choice Billing in the U.S. for more than a year.
As part of the deal, Google said it would make it easier for users to download apps directly from developers.
California, North Carolina, New York, Tennessee and Utah led the coalition of states. State regulators spent hundreds of hours negotiating the settlement, Monday's court filing said.
North Carolina's Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein told Portal on Tuesday that “the changes Google needs to adopt will lead to more innovation among app developers and lower prices for consumers, and that has always been our top goal.”
The states' attorneys said “no other U.S. antitrust court has previously been able to obtain relief of this magnitude from Google” or any other major digital platform.
Epic sued for an injunction, but not for damages. The company is expected to submit its own proposal next year to the judge hearing the cases, U.S. District Judge James Donato, on possible changes to Google's Play Store.
In a statement, Corie Wright, head of public policy at Epic, said the states' settlement “failed to address the core of Google's unlawful and anti-competitive conduct.”
Wright said Epic will push to “truly open up the Android ecosystem” in the next phase of its testing phase.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said in a post on social media platform X that the states could have received higher damages “if they had stayed in the fight a few more weeks.”
Google faces more lawsuits challenging its search and digital advertising practices. It has denied any wrongdoing in these cases.
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