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Details of the settlement were not disclosed.
In the action brought by more than 30 U.S. states and
representing 21 million consumers, the plaintiffs had claimed
that consumers might have spent less on apps and had more
options if it weren't for Google's alleged monopoly.
Parties to the settlement, including lawyers representing the
attorney general for Utah which is leading the group of states,
asked that a trial scheduled for Nov. 6 be canceled.
Google, which had denied wrongdoing, declined to comment on the
proposed settlement. Lawyers for the consumer plaintiffs
declined to comment on the proposed settlement, while a lawyer
for plaintiffs that include the states and the District of
Columbia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The settlement is subject to approval by the court.
Google is facing similar lawsuits which allege that it has
generated enormous profit margins from its Play Store by
engaging in illegal tactics to preserve monopolies in selling
Android apps and in-app goods.
They argue that Google has unlawfully mandated that some apps
use the company's payment tools and give Google as much as 30%
of digital goods sales
Epic Games, which has brought such a claim, is not a party to
the proposed Google Play settlement, founder and CEO Tim Sweeney
said in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as
Twitter.
"If Google is ending its payments monopoly without imposing a
Google Tax on third party transactions, we'll settle and be
Google's friend in their new era," he said, adding that if the
settlement left the 'Google tax' in place, the company will
"fight on".
Match Group has also brought a claim. A spokesperson for Match
declined to comment.
The case is In re Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation, U.S.
District Court, Northern District of California, No.
21-md-02981.
(Reporting by Anirudh Saligrama in Bengaluru and Mike Scarcella;
additional reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh; Editing by Jamie Freed
and Edwina Gibbs)
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