Here We Go Again, Google Faces New Antitrust Lawsuit

Google, are once again familiar faces in the antitrust court rooms. The lawsuit, filed by 36 states and Washington, DC, in California federal court, challenges Google’s policy forcing Google Play app developers to pay a 30 percent commission fee on sales made through the app.

Recently, Google expanded the fees to cover more digital goods purchased on the Play Store, taking particular aim at a number of prominent apps that had previously been able to sidestep the tax.

In August, Fortnite developer Epic Games sued Google on similar grounds, claiming that the company’s practices have raised prices for consumers online, although the lawsuit was largely overshadowed by Epic’s parallel case against Apple and its App Store. Yes, Epic Games seems to be on a conquest to terrorise the tech giants.

In recent hearings, lawmakers and regulators have repeatedly questioned Apple and Google’s abilities to make their app stores the defaults on mobile devices, a practice that often extends to specific apps. More recently, Google joined Apple in lowering its fee to 15 percent for smaller developers, a move widely seen as a response to mounting public pressure.