Some North Carolinians to receive payments from Google Play antitrust settlement
Some North Carolina Google Play Store customers will receive restitution payments under a $700 million antitrust settlement with Google, the North Carolina Department of Justice announced Thursday.
Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s office said North Carolina consumers are expected to receive about $20 million in restitution. The payments stem from a multistate lawsuit accusing Google of anticompetitive conduct that limited consumer choice and drove up prices in the Google Play Store.
The Attorney General’s Office said the lawsuit, filed in 2021, alleged that Google prevented rival app stores from being preloaded on Android devices, discouraged direct app downloads, paid developers who might have launched competing app stores and required use of Google Play Billing for in-app purchases. The office said processing fees reached as high as 30%.
The attorneys general reached the settlement in 2023. According to the Department of Justice, a federal court has now approved the agreement, allowing restitution payments to begin.
Google will pay eligible customers who made purchases on Google Play between August 2016 and September 2023. The department said most eligible consumers will receive payments through PayPal or Venmo without filing a claim form. Consumers without PayPal or Venmo will be able to file a claim through a separate process.
The settlement also requires changes to Google’s business practices. The Attorney General’s Office said Google must allow developers to use billing systems other than Google Play Billing for at least five years, allow lower prices through non-Google billing systems and permit third-party apps to be installed outside the Google Play Store for at least seven years.
The case fits into the state attorney general’s broader consumer-protection and antitrust role. Jackson’s office said the settlement is part of its work against anticompetitive conduct affecting prices and consumer choice.
Editor’s note:
This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.
