Dive Brief:

• Google Play store consumers may finally be getting a payout from a $700 million settlement the tech giant agreed to pay two years ago. It resolved antitrust complaints filed in 2021 by consumers and 53 states and U.S. territories.
• Plaintiffs are notifying potential claimants this month about their potential recovery from the 2023 settlement covering a seven-year period, with the first notices sent last week, the attorneys general of New York and California said Wednesday and Thursday in respective statements about the claims process.
• People who want to object to the settlement, or to be excluded from it, have until Feb. 19, 2026 to file notice, according to the California AG’s press release. A federal judge is scheduled to consider final approval of the settlement on April 30.

Dive Insight:

The settlement includes $630 million Google has paid into a fund for consumers and $70 million to be shared by the states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

It covers people who made purchases at Google’s Play store between August 2016 and September 2023, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in the press release. That group numbers more than 100 million people, although it’s unclear how many will apply for funds, a spokesman for the New York attorney general said Friday.

The consumer and states’ lawsuits alleged that Google stifled competition and inflated prices in its Android apps store. 

Among other terms, the settlement requires the company to adjust its applications store business practices, including allowing app developers to let customers purchase via non-Google payment systems for at least five years. Sellers will also be able to offer lower prices within their apps to entice users to use alternative payment and billing methods for five years.

Alphabet-owned Google did not admit “wrongdoing, fault, liability, or damage of any kind” as part of the settlement.

Two law firms that represented consumer plaintiffs requested fees of $85 million, Reuters reported in September. The $630 million settlement fund accrues interest and is subject to federal taxes, according to the pact.

U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco offered tentative approval of the settlement last month after expressing skepticism about its terms early last year at a hearing, Bloomberg News reported.

Most of the claims payments will be made automatically via PayPal Holdings or Venmo through the associated email address or mobile telephone number associated with their Google Play account, New York Attorney General Letitia James said Wednesday in a “consumer alert.”

“For years, Google took advantage of its control over its app store to overcharge its customers and box out competing developers,” James said, urging state residents to follow the settlement directions “to ensure they get their money back.”

The consumer-and-states’ settlement is separate from similar Google app store litigation in Donato’s court involving Epic Games, the developer of the Fortnite gaming enterprise, which sued Google five years ago over 30% commissions assessed on app sales and won a jury verdict in late 2023. 

Last month, Epic and Google announced a settlement to end the litigation and have requested that Donato modify his permanent injunction in the case.

On Friday, the judge appointed an MIT economics professor, Nancy Rose, as an expert witness to assist the court’s review of the matter. Rose will evaluate whether the companies’ proposal is “consistent with the jury verdict and the public interest in free and unfettered competition,” Donato wrote in an order.

The court has set a Jan. 22 hearing in the Epic-Google case.