Google has been issued with an antitrust lawsuit by about 37 US states due to its policies on its Android app store, Google Play.
The lawsuit claims that Google holds a monopoly on Android app distribution in the US and made use of restrictive contracts in order to force Android device makers to promote the Google Play Store at the expense of competition.
Google’s alleged objective included deterring the rise of third-party app stores and in order to do so, Google allegedly made “a direct attempt to pay Samsung to abandon relationships with top developers” so that Google Play Store would remain the most attractive option for Android users.
The complaint also challenges Google’s developer terms that “make Google Play Billing the only in-app payment processor that an Android developer may use” when an app sells digital content through an Android app.
District of Columbia Attorney General, Karl Racine, made a statement that said, “Google is using its dominant position in the marketplace to stifle competition and extract billions of dollars in commissions on in-app purchases from unsuspecting consumers—and this anticompetitive behavior must stop. Not only has Google acted unlawfully to block potential rivals from competing with its Google Play Store, it has profited by improperly locking app developers and consumers into its own payment processing system and then charging high fees.”
Google responded to the lawsuit saying, “it’s strange that a group of state attorneys general chose to file a lawsuit attacking a system that provides more openness and choice than others.”
The lawsuit is only the latest in a long line of legal headaches for Google, which is already facing multiple antitrust suits by the federal government and the states.
Sources: MSN, BBC
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