Google is hit with another antitrust class action lawsuit over mobile apps

A Florida resident has joined the ranks of people filing class-action lawsuits under antitrust law Google.

Benjamin Blumberg and his legal team claim that Google has monopolized the market for applications – or apps – for Android mobile devices through certain business practices and strategies, which has caused harm to society by eliminating competition. Google’s dominance has resulted in consumers paying more and getting less, and Blumberg says there is no other way to fight back than to take the company to court.

On Monday, December 7, lawyers for Blumberg filed a class action lawsuit against Google LLC and Alphabet LLC, Google’s parent company, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. They accuse the tech giant of violating the federal Sherman Antitrust Act.

“Google willfully gained and maintained market power through its clearly exclusionary conduct, including denying access to competing app stores through the Google Play Store and implementing significant friction designed to lure consumers away from sideloading third-party app stores,” Blumberg’s lawsuit argues collective. The complaint later said Google’s approach had the effect of “foreclosing competition, stifling innovation, and severely limiting consumer choice.”

Unlawful market dominance paved the way for Google to charge an above-competitive 30% commission on paid app sales and a 30% fee on in-app purchases, Blumberg says.

Blumberg himself claims to have suffered economic losses – in the form of overpaying for apps and in-app purchases – due to Google’s monopoly on Android mobile apps.

He and his lawyers are asking the court to recognize their case as a class action lawsuit that will be open to representing all other consumers who own smartphones running the Android operating system and have suffered the same harm due to the lack of competition in mobile applications. Without providing specific estimates of the number of potential class members who could be involved in the case, Blumberg’s lawyers told the court they believed “there are millions.”

Blumberg isn’t the only person suing Google for alleged antitrust violations.

October 20 US Department of Justice and 11 states filed a historic antitrust case against Google in federal court in Washington

The lawsuit accuses the company of paying billions of dollars to smartphone makers – including Apple, Samsung, LG and Motorola – and the country’s largest wireless carriers – AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile – to equip their devices with Google Search as the default search engine. engine.

On the same day, Kondomar Herrera, a New York consumerfiled a class action lawsuit against Google in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Herrera’s claims against Google regarding control over the mobile app market are virtually identical to those that Blumberg raises in his case.

Both of these cases filed a similar class action lawsuit Mary Carr lawsuit, also filed in federal court for the Northern District of California, relating to the mobile application market.

Blumberg, Herrera and Carr say Google started by offering the Android operating system as an open system that theoretically the app vendor’s competitors could participate in, but as Android grew in popularity, Google closed its system. As a result, Google Play, the company’s app store, became the only app store for Android phones.

“Google intentionally obtained and maintained such power by forcing the purchase of Android mobile applications and in-app products and services at artificial prices and through its clearly exclusionary conduct, including denying access to competing app stores through the Google Play Store,” the class action lawsuit says Blumberg. Google “exploited this power, including through its unlawful restraint of trade practices… to maintain and expand its monopoly.”

Do you have an Android smartphone? What do you think about apps downloaded from Google Play? Tell us about it in the comments section below.

Lead plaintiff Blumberg and the proposed class members are represented by Gary E. Mason of Mason Lietz & Klinger LLP and Dewitt M. Lovelace of Lovelace and Associates PA

The Mobile applications Class action lawsuit Is Benjamin Blumberg et al. v. Google LLC et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-03557, in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.