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Android developer Epic Games has filed a class-action lawsuit against the Google Play Store. As reported by Android Police, this lawsuit is in regards to the 30% transaction fee that the Play Store charges every app developer. Another law firm has also begun proceedings against the company to try and include all aggrieved app developers.
Many developers have complained about what they see as an extortionate fee. However, normally things do not get taken as far as a lawsuit. One law firm is now looking to pool together all aggrieved developers for legal action against Google.
In recent weeks Google has waged war with certain app developers. Firstly it removed the BlueMail app after its developer worked with an antitrust investigation into Google. Then it also removed Fortnite after Epic Games violated its policies.
Now the developers are fighting back with this proposed lawsuit. It still needs approval from federal court. Here are the links to the full details on the case.
App developers begin legal battle with Google
Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP is the firm involved in bringing this lawsuit forward. They are a Seattle based firm that specializes in class actions. It has filed a complaint with the federal district court in San Jose against Google.
The complaint is for establishing an effective Android app store monopoly. It also concerns discouraging and making it difficult to sideload app stores without obfuscation measures. These include alarming Google Play Protect Prompts.
All of this amounts to anti-competitive practices from Google. The most notable of which is the 30% split and a product pricing minimum of 99 cents.
Hagens Berman wants to seek monetary damages in this case. Epic Games is less concerned with this but has still taken legal action against Google and Apple. Both have cited antitrust and monopolies as issues in their lawsuits.
Developers can sign up with Hagens Berman here to become part of the class-action suit. As mentioned a federal judge will have to give approval to this action before things really start to happen.
We have no word on any sort of timescale for this. The chances are that it could take some time before anything of any not comes of this. Some legal precedents exist in this area. Notably the case of Aptoide who sought an injunction to stop Google from detecting and deleting its third-party app store.
However, this did occur in Portugal so perhaps this may not hold as well in this instance. It will be really interesting to see how this plays out over the coming months, however.