Google was sued for alleged monopoly
A group of 37 prosecutors from the United States initiated a process against the technology giant for maintaining an alleged monopolistic conduct in its application store
A coalition of 37 attorneys general in the United States filed a lawsuit against Google in California for alleged monopolistic conduct in relation to its application Google Play Store.
The lawsuit is led by the Utah attorney general. It has been joined by the attorneys general from 35 other states in the country, in addition to Washington DC.
“Google’s monopoly is a threat to the market. Google Play is not fair. Google must be prosecuted for harming small businesses and consumers. It must stop using its monopoly power and hyper-dominant market position to capture billions of dollars of SMEs, competitors and consumers above what they should pay,” said Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes.
This new lawsuit accuses Google of having used its dominant position to unfairly restrict competition with the Google Play Store. The complaint argues that the technology company originally sold Android as an “open” system, causing manufacturers to use it and not compete with Google Play at that time. According to the lawsuit, once the company had a “critical mass” of users, it began shutting down the Android ecosystem.
Specifically, the attorneys general accuse the giant of imposing technical barriers that prevent users from installing applications outside the Play Store. They also ensure that the company forces device manufacturers to sign agreements to prevent them from developing versions of Android that deviate from the version certified by Google.
K. Tovar
Source: Xataka Android
