According to a court filing, Alphabet Inc's Google has agreed to pay $90 million to settle a legal dispute with app developers over the money they made producing programmes for Android smartphones and luring users to make in-app purchases.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco, the app developers accused Google of effectively closing the app ecosystem by using agreements with smartphone makers, technical barriers, and revenue sharing agreements to shunt most payments through its Google Play billing system with a default service fee of 30 per cent.
Google said in a blog post that as part of the proposed settlement, it would invest $90 million into a fund to benefit app creators who earned $2 million or less in annual income from their apps.
"A vast majority of U.S. developers who earned revenue through Google Play will be eligible to receive money from this fund, if they choose," Google said in the blog post.
Google also stated that it would charge developers a 15% commission on their first million dollars in earnings from the Google Play Store each year. It began doing so in 2021.
The proposed settlement must be approved by the court.
According to Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, who represented the plaintiffs, there were approximately 48,000 app developers eligible to apply for the $90 million fund, and the minimum compensation is $250.
Apple Inc agreed last year to relax App Store rules on small developers as part of a class action settlement. In addition, it agreed to pay $100 million.
Congress is debating legislation that would require Google and Apple to allow sideloading, or the practise of downloading software without using an app store, in Washington.
According to Google, sideloading is already possible. It would also prevent them from mandating app developers to utilise Google or Apple's payment systems.
(Source:www.livemint.com)
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco, the app developers accused Google of effectively closing the app ecosystem by using agreements with smartphone makers, technical barriers, and revenue sharing agreements to shunt most payments through its Google Play billing system with a default service fee of 30 per cent.
Google said in a blog post that as part of the proposed settlement, it would invest $90 million into a fund to benefit app creators who earned $2 million or less in annual income from their apps.
"A vast majority of U.S. developers who earned revenue through Google Play will be eligible to receive money from this fund, if they choose," Google said in the blog post.
Google also stated that it would charge developers a 15% commission on their first million dollars in earnings from the Google Play Store each year. It began doing so in 2021.
The proposed settlement must be approved by the court.
According to Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, who represented the plaintiffs, there were approximately 48,000 app developers eligible to apply for the $90 million fund, and the minimum compensation is $250.
Apple Inc agreed last year to relax App Store rules on small developers as part of a class action settlement. In addition, it agreed to pay $100 million.
Congress is debating legislation that would require Google and Apple to allow sideloading, or the practise of downloading software without using an app store, in Washington.
According to Google, sideloading is already possible. It would also prevent them from mandating app developers to utilise Google or Apple's payment systems.
(Source:www.livemint.com)