PLAY STORE APPLICATION DEVELOPERS SUING GOOGLE

36 US states, Washington and the District of Columbia have filed an antitrust lawsuit with the court of the Northern District of California. They accuse the search giant of having a dominant position in the Android app market, which gives it the power to dictate terms to their developers.

The new lawsuit is the latest challenge to the search giant. It says that almost all applications for the operating system of the smartphones are downloaded from the Play Store. Mobile app developers practically have no alternative to sell their products, partially because it is against Google's policy. Thus, it fights competition and does not allow users to choose other stores.

From September, Google will charge all developers 30% for selling their apps in the Play Store.

The largest corporation considers all indignation to be unfounded. On the contrary, the claims of the plaintiffs increase costs for small developers, do not allow them to introduce something new, compete, and can also harm the security of the digital service store, writes Politico.

‘This lawsuit is not about helping the little guy or protecting consumers’, says the company. ‘It's about giving incentives to a handful of big app developers who want to take advantage of Google Play without paying for it.’

Over the past year, this is the 4th antitrust lawsuit against Google.

Prior to this, the state authorities applied to court with a lawsuit about the dominant position of the company in the search engine and advertising market. Bills that can change the position of the largest aggregator have already been considered.

We should remind that Google Play Store is now the main app store on Android phones, although users can download add-ons from other sources. The owners of the iPhones are deprived of such opportunities. For them, the only app store is the Apple App Store, as you will not be able to install add-ons on your phone.