Google vs. States: The Google / State AGs Settlement and a Game theorist’s View of User Choice Billing

In order to settle an antitrust lawsuit, the company has agreed to make some changes to its app store that it has resisted for years.

The tech giant said it will simplify the process of making apps available for download outside of its own app marketplace, known as the Google Play store.

While states announced a settlement with Google back in September, the details were unknown until the company publicly revealed the terms of the agreement on Monday.

Google will contribute $630 million into a settlement fund for consumers and $70 million will be provided to the dozens of states that brought the legal action against the tech behemoth.

The terms of settlement were kept confidential during the case. A jury in California found that the Play Store violated US competition laws and harmed consumers after being sued by the maker of the hit video game.

In the new year, a judge will consider what changes be made to address the anti-trust issues raised in court at the trial.

Several legal battles concerning whether the company abuses its power remain pending, even though it is one of the most valuable companies in the world. Among them, a case brought by the Justice Department centered on Google allegedly breaking the law in maintaining its dominance of online search and advertising.

In an official blog post, Google writes it will roll out “User Choice Billing” more broadly after the court approves the settlement. Jackson confirms that US game developers will be eligible for the program for the first time; it was previously available to game developers in South Korea, and will be rolling out to game devs in the European Economic Area early next year.

Perhaps most importantly, Google is reserving the right not to let developers like Netflix link to their own websites to give their users a discounted rate. “Google is not required to allow developers to include links that take a User outside an app distributed through Google Play to make a purchase,” the settlement agreement reads. We are still waiting to hear whether Apple will allow links and buttons to alternative payment systems. But the Google / state AGs settlement suggests that regardless, Google will not be required to allow links.

Several of the most significant sounding changes are tied to the User Choice Billing program, which proved in the trial that it is a fake choice.

During the Epic trial, Google claimed that users were able to install third party apps on their devices through any number of methods, and that many agreements it had with manufacturers did not require them to put its Play app on their devices.

Does that sound like much? If you add it all up, it does make for a slightly different Google app store landscape than we’ve experienced over the past decade and change. Not only does every concession have an expired date, but many of them are not real concessions at all.

Developers will need to be allowed to steer consumers away from the Play Store for several years, if the settlement is approved.