Google will pay $630 million to Play Store users: Who qualifies and how to apply?

According to court documents filed in a federal court in San Francisco, California, Google will have to pay $700 million as part of the resolution of an antitrust lawsuit filed in various states across the nation.

In 2020, several US states filed separate lawsuits, accusing the tech giant of abusing its “dominant position” when it comes to online searches and in doing so harming competition through agreements with smartphone manufacturers and wireless operators. This resulted in customers being overcharged according to the complaint. They were also accused of charging app developers high download fees. In the end, the complaints were unified, becoming a single case.

“After originally seeking $10.5 billion in antitrust damages identified as Google’s unjustly collected fees, the States Attorneys General settled for a $700 million payout,” said Corie Wright, vice president of public policy at Epic Games, about the agreement. A jury unanimously sided with Epic in its antitrust lawsuit against Google last week.

Wright noted that the states’ agreement does not address the core of Google’s illegal and anti-competitive behavior. “Consumers will continue to overpay for digital goods as a result of Google’s imposition of supracompetitive 30% fees for Google Play Billing or 26% junk fees on top of payments Google isn’t involved in processing.”

According to a statement from Google, of the $700 million agreed in compensation, $70 million will be allocated to a fund that will be used by the states which brought the lawsuit, while the remaining $630 million will be distributed among affected consumers through a settlement fund. In addition, the company agreed to expand competition in its Play Store application store. The settlement still needs a judge’s final apporval.

“This agreement builds on Android’s choice and flexibility, maintains strong security protections, and retains Google’s ability to compete with other (operating system) makers, and invest in the Android ecosystem for users and developers,” said Google vice president for government affairs and public policy Wilson White in a statement.

Google will pay $630 million to Play Store users: Who qualifies and how to apply?

Any Google user who has used or made purchases through the Play Store, between 16 August 2016 and 30 September 2023, is eligible for a one-time payment of $2 dollars, as well as to additional payments in proportion to the expenses incurred in the aforementioned mobile download application.

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According to CNN, about 102 million users are eligible for the payment, of which 71.4 million will not have to make any type of request to claim the payment, since the company will deposit the $2 dollars automatically to all eligible users, according to its database.