Google said that from 2016 to 2021, it would invest US$90 million in a fund to assist app developers who earned US$2 million or less annually.
According to a court document, Alphabet's Google has agreed to pay $90 million to end a legal dispute with app developers over the money they made from developing apps for Android smartphones and from persuading users to make in-app purchases.
Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It was created through a restructuring of Google on October 2, 2015, and became the parent company of Google and several former Google subsidiaries.
The establishment of Alphabet Inc. was prompted by a desire to make the core Google business "cleaner and more accountable" while allowing greater autonomy to group companies that operate in businesses other than Internet services.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco, the app developers claimed that Google had closed the app ecosystem by using agreements with smartphone manufacturers, technical impediments, and revenue-sharing contracts, and had diverted the majority of payments through its Google Play billing system with a default service fee of 30%.
Google stated in a blog post that it would contribute$90 million to a fund to assist app developers who earned $2 million or less in annual income from 2016 to 2021 as part of the proposed settlement.
"A vast majority of US developers who earned revenue through Google Play will be eligible to receive money from this fund if they choose," Google said in the blog post.
Additionally, Google stated it would keep charging a 15% commission to developers that generate $1 million or less via the Google Play Store yearly. In 2021, it first started doing this.
The proposed settlement must be accepted by the court.
The lowest award is $250, and there were probably 48,000 app developers eligible to apply for the US$90 million fund, according to Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, which represented the plaintiffs.
Apple reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit last year by lowering the requirements for small developers to use the App Store. Furthermore, it consented to pay $100 million.
Congress in Washington is debating legislation that would compel Google and Apple to permit sideloading, the technique of installing software devoid of the aid of an app store. Additionally, it would prevent them from compelling app developers to utilize Apple's and Google's payment systems.
