Google settles UK app developer claim for £260m
£160m of the total is set aside for UK app developers who sold through the Play Store. No claim deadline has been published.
Google has agreed to pay £260m to settle a class action brought in the UK over its Android app distribution business.
The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal has approved the settlement, according to Reuters, which closes the case.
The split matters more than the headline figure. Settlement documents and Reuters reporting put £160m aside for compensation to the UK app developers covered by the claim. The remaining £100m covers legal fees and litigation costs.
The claim alleged that Google used its control of Android app distribution to restrict rival app stores and payment systems, and to charge developers commissions of up to 30% on Play Store sales.
It originally sought more than £1bn in damages. The settlement is roughly a quarter of that.
Google and Alphabet have not admitted wrongdoing. Agreeing to pay is all the agreement commits them to.
Who qualifies is the question most founders will ask. The class covers UK-based app developers who sold through the Play Store; reports put the number at several thousand.
Individual payouts are expected to vary widely, from a few hundred pounds for small developers to larger sums for bigger businesses, on the same reporting. No per-developer formula has been published.
Nor has a claim deadline been set out publicly, or the process by which an eligible developer registers. Those details sit with the tribunal-approved settlement scheme.
For a founder with an Android app and UK accounts, the practical step is to check whether their Play Store sales fall inside the class period and keep the revenue records that would support a claim.
Two things are worth noting beyond the money. The commission rate that triggered the case, up to 30%, is still the rate most developers plan their pricing around.
And the case shows what collective action does that individual litigation does not. A single small developer could not have funded a claim against Google. Several thousand of them, pooled, extracted £260m without ever proving the allegation in court.
More: Google Play