AG Weiser sues Google over alleged unfair business practices
DENVER — Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser joined with 35 other attorneys general Thursday in an antitrust lawsuit against Google that alleges that the tech giant engaged in unfair business practices related to the Google Play app store.
“U.S. consumers spend more time using mobile devices than desktop or laptop computers, and they spend more than $32 billion a year purchasing apps and content within apps. Despite promising an open platform, Google has restricted competition from rival app stores and from rival payment processing for in-app purchases,” Weiser said in a prepared statement. “By so doing, Google has limited choice and inflated the prices that consumers pay for purchases made through an app downloaded on the Play Store. The lawsuit filed in federal court today is designed to restore competition and protect consumers.”
The suit claims that Google assured application developers that its Android apps would be open-sourced but “once app developers created apps for the Google platform, it broke that promise — in violation of state consumer protection laws.”
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This lawsuit is led by Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes, New York Attorney General Letitia James, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, and Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III.