Google Faces Anti-Trust Lawsuit for Play Store's 30 Percent Commission from Purchases; Is Apple Safe from This?

Google has been presented an Antitrust Lawsuit that targets the 30 percent commission of the Play Store for every in-app purchase or app payment from user payments. Attorney generals from multiple states of the country have gone together to raise this case to the courts, and it is similar to what Apple faced against Epic Games and "Fortnite."

This is Google's fourth Antitrust case over the past year, and it has been piling for the Mountain View giant, for different reasons and lawsuits.

The antitrust laws probe the malpractices and monopolistic tactics which a company has allegedly done, and it may be brought up by the Federal Trade Commission themselves, other companies, or individuals.

Google Play Store's Antitrust Lawsuit

A total of 36 states in the country has been listed as plaintiffs in the case, including that of Columbia and Vermont, and is led by the State of Utah, which they filed early Wednesday. The case was filed in the Northern District of California, which also include Google's home state to sign on the case against them.

According to CNBC, Android's Play Store has its prices to a thirty percent commission for each purchase of a consumer. This means that a 70 to 30 split is happening, with the majority going to the app developer, and 30 for the publisher which is Google Play Store, and was viewed as an anticompetitive behavior by the complainants.

While there are some which have their split with Google at half the percentage at 15 percent, there are still left in the 70-30 split, which is for massive developers and popular applications.

Google Play's Control on Android Apps

The antitrust has looked into Google Play's massive distributing percentage over the Android platform, which is also from Google, distributed as an open-sourced operating system. Currently, Google Play Store distributes 90 percent of Android applications on the market, which is a massive stake for the internet company.

Other Android app distributors do not reach or exceed five percent of its market distribution rates, signifying that Google has almost complete control over it.

Apple App Store Same as Google Play?

In 2020, Epic Games sued Apple for kicking it off the platform, especially as "Fortnite" offered a direct purchase that would be cheaper than the in-app purchases from the App Store for its in-game money. For Epic, the 70-30 split is too much for them to accept, hence the external option, and Apple banning them from the platform.

It is almost the same for Google, but in Apple's case, it was ruled by the judge as fair as it was the agreed numbers when Epic Games put their applications under the App Store.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Isaiah Richard