36 US states sue over Google’s app store advertising

36 US states sue over Google’s app store advertising

San Francisco, 7/14/2021

A group of 36 U.S. states sued Google in an antitrust case. They argued that Google’s advertising of its app store within the Android operating system violates antitrust laws.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in California. It is led by Utah, North Carolina, Tennessee, New York, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa and Nebraska. It is the fourth major case filed by U.S. states against Google.

In a blog post, Google said the lawsuit is „without merit.“ Starting in September, Google plans to charge developers who use its app store a 30 percent levy on the sale of digital goods or services.

The Coalition for App Fairness, which includes Epic Games and Spotify, supports the lawsuit and announced it would „enforce fairness in the app marketplace.“