It was an epic trial and it was an epic trial. Two weeks ago, a federal jury found that the Google Play Store violated antitrust laws. Google's in-app payments processing platform and Android
app distribution process were both run as monopolies, the jury said in Epic v. Google. Epic sued Google after the game developer was booted from the Play Store with its popular game Fortnite after Epic promoted its own in-app payment processing system, which violated Play Store rules.
According to a report published by
Bloomberg, Google seriously considered changing the in-app payment processing platform, from which it took 15 to 30% of in-app revenue. In 2021, Google considered an overhaul of the Play Store billing model, called Project Everest. This was discovered in documents released as part of the Epic antitrust lawsuit against Google.
Google found itself in a difficult situation. On the one hand, he feared that if he didn't make any changes to the Play Store's in-app payment processing platform, it would be through regulatory overreach. On the other hand, making changes to the platform could have a serious impact on the company's revenue. In an internal presentation, Google said: “We can defend the status quo for a few months. Proposing the proposed changes sooner could help support reasonable legislation, position Google as a leader, and prevent more draconian legislation. »
Google decided that Project Everest would cost it too much money
Project Everest would have blocked Google from taking its 15-30% cut of app revenue and instead would charge developers for various services related to their apps' listing on the Play Store, with additional fees added for user downloads and updates. But this change would cost Google in the form of a $1 billion to $2 billion drop in annual app revenue and a $6 billion to $9 billion drop in gaming revenue.
Google employees floated the idea of asking app developers to handle in-app payment processing themselves in exchange for lower fees than Google. Google calculated that this option would reduce annual Play Store revenues by between $250 million and $1.3 billion.
Also two weeks ago, Google announced the terms of a deal reached in September with all 50 states, the District of Columbia and two US territories for $700 million. After awarding states $70 million in settlements for penalties, restitution, disgorgement and fees, the remaining $630 million will be shared among Play Store customers who will receive a minimum of $2 each.
