Match drops out of Google Play antitrust showdown
Match Group and Google announced a settlement Tuesday in Match’s lawsuit against the company. Last-minute decision leaves Google expected to face Fortnite the publisher Epic Games alone in an antitrust lawsuit It starts next week, with Epic alleging that Google Play’s payment policies are anti-competitive.
Match sued Google in May 2022, alleging that the company “unlawfully monopolized the market” for app distribution with Google Play and imposed an “exorbitant tax” on the fees it charges on transactions in the marketplace. His statements were consistent with a Epic’s existing complaint as well as a coalition of state attorneys general. Google and the announced states their own rules in September.
Under the terms of this latest settlement, $40 million in deposits will be returned to Match, according to Letter from Match to shareholders for the third quarter of 2023. By March 31, 2024, Match apps will implement Google’s user-choice billing systemmeaning Match will give Google an 11% cut of subscriptions and a 26% cut of purchases made using Match’s own payment systems. Or will owe Google its standard fees for transactions using Google’s in-app purchasing system. The parties too submitted a voluntary notice for the dismissal of the suit.
Match spokesperson Vidhya Murugesan declined to comment beyond what was included in Match’s letter.
“We are pleased to reach a settlement agreement with Match Group,” Google spokeswoman Danielle Cohen said in a statement. The edge. “This ensures that we can continue to provide our shared users with the secure, seamless, high-quality experience that people expect from apps on Google Play, while preserving Google’s ability to invest in the Android ecosystem and bring value throughout the lifecycle of an application.”
On X, formerly Twitter, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, said that his company “will be judged against Google alone” and that “we reject Google’s so-called “user choice billing,” in which Google controls, monitors and taxes transactions between users and developers.
Coalition for App Fairness, an organization run alongside Epic, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Updated October 31 at 6:23 p.m. ET: Match declined to comment.
