Elain Brown Tech 07.01.2022 07:Jul AM EDT

Google Offers To Pay Developers $90 Million To Settle Antitrust Lawsuit

Google chose to settle the class action lawsuit filed by developers against its Play Store.

The lawsuit is about the company's policies in the Play Store that violate federal antitrust laws.

The lawsuit alleged that Google had policies in place that effectively forced developers to use its Google Play billing system, which for a significant amount of time had a default charge of 30% on all transactions.

As a gesture of goodwill toward smaller developers and in response to the complaints, Google reduced this fee to 15% beginning in July 2021 for the first million dollars earned through any app.

A group of Android app developers who were represented by the plaintiffs' rights law firm Hagens Berman were successful in obtaining a $90 million settlement on their behalf.

According to The Verge, the law firm representing the plaintiffs, 48,000 small app developers in the U.S. will have the opportunity to submit a claim for the fund.

Some claimants could receive as much as $200,000, while the smallest would be $250.

Google's Antitrust Lawsuit

Google was in question for violating antitrust laws and also anti-competitive policies governing its Google Play Store.

According to the lawyers of Hagens Berman, Google violated federal antitrust laws by excluding competing app stores and thereby forcing Android software developers in the U.S. to pay the technology giant exorbitant fees.

Since the firm and its co-counsel, Sperling & Slater, filed the lawsuit against Google on August 17, 2020, it has been pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Hagens Berman is the law firm that was the first to file a class action lawsuit on behalf of developers. They also represented the developers with the 2021 win they similarly had with Apple.

According to Steve Berman, managing partner and co-founder of Hagens Berman, "Following our win against Apple for similar conduct, we think this pair of settlements sends a strong message to Big Tech: the law is watching, and even the most powerful companies in the world are accountable when they stifle competition."

Google's Proposed Settlement

Google also announced this settlement on their network. As announced by Google, this settlement will allow both parties to move forward and will prevent years of uncertain and distracting litigation.

As part of the agreement, the technology company will establish a fund with a total of $ 90 million to provide financial assistance to software developers in the U.S. whose annual revenue from Google Play was two million dollars or less in each of the years 2016-2021.

If they so desire, the vast majority of U.S. developers who have monetized their work through Google Play will be eligible to receive financial assistance from the fund described here.

In the event that the settlement is approved by the court, those developers who meet the criteria will be notified and given the opportunity to receive a distribution from the fund.

Google also stated that its efforts, including the fund, are an expansion of a number of the ways in which we already support developers.

One of these ways is by providing developers with tools that assist them in creating applications, reducing their expenses, and expanding their businesses.

Lastly, Google also announced that they are now going to publish an annual transparency report in line with the demand of other developers wanting to see how the Google Play Store operates.

Google stated, "The reports will share information about the Google Play Store, including statistics such as apps removed from Google Play, account terminations, and other data regarding how users interact with Google Play."