Google has been fighting some legal battles for months, and they do not seem to be winning. Last week, the tech company lost its fight with Epic Games, and now, the settlement of the antitrust concerns has been revealed.
Google was sued over Play Store antitrust concerns by 36 US states in 2021. While the lawsuit was settled in September, it has taken till now for the terms of the settlement to be revealed.
How Google will pay $700m
The agreement reached by Google and the US legal official is a payment of $630m into a settlement fund that will be “distributed for the benefit of consumers.” Also, $70m into a “fund that will be used by the states.” Unfortunately, there are currently no plans on how the funds will be distributed.
Google will simplify the process of sideloading apps on Android while updating “language that informs users about these potential risks of downloading apps directly from the web for the first time.” According to @MishaalRahman, the screen prompt that warns about installing an app from an unknown source from settings will be combined into a single screen.
The text in the combined screen will be “your phone currently isn’t configured to install apps from this source. Granting this source permission to install apps could place your phone and data at risk.”
Android smartphone makers will be allowed to pre-install third-party app stores on their devices, while all developers will be allowed to use alternative app billing. With the user choice billing, developers will show app users different pricing options within their app or games when a user makes a digital purchase.
Google will begin to implement these changes after formal approval by the court. We will learn how the fund will be distributed to consumers, but it will be exclusive to those in the US.
