Report from Reuters
In Brief – Aptoide, a Portuguese company that specializes in mobile games and claims the world’s third-largest Android app store, filed an antitrust lawsuit in US federal court accusing Google of shutting out rival app stores by monopolizing app distribution and billing. The company, which claims more than 200 million annual users and 436,000 apps in its Android app store that charges lower fees than Google’s Pay Store, says that it would have exerted substantially more pressure on Google’s pricing and policies but for Google’s “anticompetitive chokehold” that shuts out smaller rivals through exclusive deals and tying the Play Store to other “must have” Google services. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, seeks an injunction and unspecified triple damages. Aptoide filed antitrust complaints against Google with the EU competition authority in 2014 and 2018.
Context – Aptoide’s first complaint helped spur the EU’s “Android Antitrust Case” that resulted in a $5 billion fine for Google in 2018 and led to major changes to Android policies in Europe. However, while they clearly remain unhappy, Play Store regulation has largely moved on. In the EU, it is part of Google’s Digital Markets Act compliance plan. In the US, the major driver is Epic Games’ antitrust lawsuit filed in 2020. Google lost, Judge James Donato imposed a comprehensive injunction opening Android to third-party app stores, and Epic Games and Google eventually negotiated an alternative global settlement and are pitching it to a skeptical Donato. Fees on in-app payments are central to the deal, falling from 30% to 20%. The two giants also propose a “Registered App Stores” program for six years on Android that requires third-party stores to meet safety requirements and provides them full access to the Play Store app catalog as proposed by Donato’s original remedy order. Donato requested expert “friend of the court” briefs critiquing the settlement proposal. Globally, Apple and Google also face demands to open up app distribution in the UK, Japan, South Korea and India, with each new result fueling more.