A lawsuit that’s filed in federal court in San Francisco between Google and Android app developers has been settled. The tech giant has agreed to create a fund and pay $90 million to settle with the law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, which is representing the developers’ side.
The app developers accused Google of creating technical barriers, agreements with smartphone makers, and revenue-sharing agreements to force users to make their payments via Google Play’s billing system says Reuters. The problem for the app developers is the 30% Google tax cut. With Google pushing players to make payments through their ecosystem, app developers were losing a significant amount of money due to having to pay the Google Play tax.
To settle with the developers, Google created a $90 million fund and said app developers who made $2 million or less between 2016 and 2021 are eligible to apply to it. This is strictly a US deal, but other regions may follow if they choose to seek legal ways.
On the other side of the ocean, the UK Competition and Markets Authority is to investigate the market power of Apple and Google.
Google has been dealing with investigations and lawsuits since the start of this year. Krafton sued both Google and Apple at the beginning of 2022, and there is an ongoing legal fight between Google and Epic Games.
