About $1.4 million will be allocated to Massachusetts in a massive $700 million settlement involving all 50 states with Google over allegations that the tech giant stifled competition with the Android app store. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
Google is in trouble again, with the state of Massachusetts set to receive more than $1 million for the tech giant’s misconduct.
The attorneys general of all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands have reached a massive $700 million settlement with Google for allegedly stifling competition from the Android app store.
Settlement with states includes $630 million in compensation for U.S. consumers being funneled by a payment processing system that the AGs claim inflated prices for digital transactions within apps downloaded from the Play Store. It is included. This store carries the Android software found in most smartphones around the world.
The remaining $70 million in fines will be paid to each state, with more than $1.4 million going to Massachusetts, according to Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office.
“For years, Google has harmed consumers and app developers alike by limiting consumer choice over app stores, downloads, and payment methods on Android devices. “We are supporting the consumers affected by this and demanding that Google reform its anti-competitive business practices,” Campbell said in a statement.
Google reached an agreement with the state attorney general in September, but the terms of the settlement were not disclosed in documents filed in San Francisco federal court until late Monday. The disclosure comes a week after a federal jury accused Google of deploying anti-competitive tactics in its Play Store for Android apps.
Just like Apple does with its iPhone app store, Google also collects a 15% to 30% commission on in-app purchases. The AGs allege that the fees raised prices above what they would have been had there been an open market for payment processing.
According to evidence presented in a recent trial focused on the Play Store, these fees cost Google billions of dollars in profits annually.
Consumers who purchased products on the Google Play Store between August 2016 and September 2023 and were harmed by anti-competitive conduct are eligible for compensation. Officials estimate that about 102 million customers in the U.S. will receive at least $2, with the possibility of receiving more depending on how much they spend on in-app purchases over a seven-year period.
Google is also improving its business practices by ensuring that Android users can download apps outside of the Google Play Store and that app developers can use their own or other payment processing and billing in addition to Google’s billing system. It is also required to be competitive.
The agreement, announced Tuesday by Campbell’s office, comes after Google faced a host of new requirements and filed for bankruptcy in 2022 under a separate settlement over its location-tracking practices.
The $391.5 million and 40-state settlement stems from an investigation that found Google “misled consumers about its location tracking practices and violated state consumer protection laws since at least 2014.” has been completed, Maura Healey said in her final month as attorney general before becoming governor.
Massachusetts received $9.3 million in that settlement.
Herald Wire Service contributed to this report