Thirty-six U.S. state and District of Columbia attorneys general sued Alphabet Inc‘s Google subsidiary on Wednesday, alleging that it bought off competitors and used restrictive contracts to unlawfully maintain a monopoly for its Google Play Store on Android phones.
The full complaint is here.
Diane Bartz, Paresh Dave, and Karen Freifeld for Reuters:
The allegations about Google’s Play Store stem from an investigation involving nearly every U.S. state that began in September 2019 and have already resulted in three other lawsuits against the company.
The states, led by Utah, New York, North Carolina and Tennessee, argue that Google has generated “enormous profit margins” from the Play Store by engaging in illegal tactics to preserve monopolies in selling Android apps and in-app goods.
In the United States, Google Play accounts for 90% of Android apps downloaded, according to the lawsuit.
“Google leverages its monopoly power with Android to unlawfully maintain its monopoly in the Android app distribution market,” the lawsuit stated… The states alleged that Google bought off developers so they would not support competing app stores, and that through numerous secret projects it intended to pay Samsung Electronics Co., whose rival app store posed the biggest threat, to stop competing.
MacDailyNews Take: Google and Samsung et al. involved in some shady backroom deals? Shocking.
Yes, Virginia, thieves steal.
