Thursday, July 8th, 2021
“End illegal monopoly power”
Numerous states are suing Google
More work awaits Google’s lawyers: Dozens of US attorneys have filed a lawsuit against the Internet giant in a federal court in California. They criticize alleged antitrust violations in the Android Play Store.
Google has to deal with another antitrust litigation in the United States. Thirty-six states and Washington DC filed a lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco for antitrust violations in the business of apps for Android phones. The company has not yet issued a statement.
“Once again we see Google taking advantage of its dominance to suppress competition in forbidden ways,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. “We’re filing this lawsuit to end Google’s illegal monopoly power and finally give millions of consumers and businesses a voice.” James leads the alliance of plaintiffs along with attorneys general from Utah, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
Specifically, the new procedure revolves around antitrust violations in business with apps for the so-called Play Store of Google’s smartphone operating system Android. The lawsuit accuses the Alphabet subsidiary of abusing its market power to impede competition. This leads to higher prices, less choice and a lack of innovation for users. It is also about the amount of fees that Google charges app developers.
It is just one of a series of US antitrust proceedings that have opened against Google in the past few months. In 2020, numerous states filed lawsuits alleging that the company had illegal monopoly positions in search engine and online advertising. Only last August a dispute broke out between the “Fortnite” developer Epic Games and the iPhone manufacturer Apple over app store fees.
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