Maya Robertson
A US judge in California granted permission for a lawsuit against Google to proceed as a consumer class action of 21 million individuals who claim the tech giant’s Play Store practices break the anti-competition laws of the United States, Reuters reported.
In a 27-page order, United States district judge James Donato said on Monday that the plaintiffs have established ‘’commonality’’ and other criteria necessary to form a class action lawsuit.
The plaintiffs, who have requested $4.7 billion in damages, are individual Play Store consumers from 12 states including Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, as well as American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The case is one of many pending antitrust lawsuits against Google, and state prosecutors in 37 US states that filed similar complaints against the company in July last year. Per Reuters’ report, attorneys of the plaintiffs in the new class action are working closely with the state enforcers.
Meanwhile, Google has rejected the claims in the case and defended how it runs its Play Store.
“We’re evaluating the ruling, and after that, we’ll assess our options,” a company spokesperson said on Monday.
In addition, attorneys for the company argued that the plaintiffs hadn’t demonstrated how their claims harmed them, which Donato disagreed with.
Allegations of the class attorneys also include that Google prevented developers from directing users to its rivals and used ”misleading warnings” to discourage consumers from using alternative app stores to download apps
A trial is set to commence in June 2023.
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