United States of America: Filed 36 States and DC lawsuit against Google for allegedly creating and maintaining a monopoly with its Google Play Store

36 States and Washington D.C. filed a federal lawsuit against Google on July 7, 2021. The states allege that Google created a monopoly for Android apps through its Google Play Store and active suppression of other app stores. Google is set to demand a 30% commission on apps downloaded through the Google Play Store from September onwards. Google allegedly controls 90% of the Android app market and prevents other app stores from establishing themselves. It does so by blocking other app stores from being available to download on the Google Play Store and bans them from placing advertisements on the Google Play Store as well as on YouTube. Finally, the lawsuit states, that consumers were made to believe that downloading apps outside of the Google Play Store would lead to serious security concerns. In a company blog post, Google responded to the lawsuit claiming that its practices are rather beneficial for smaller, competitive app developers and the security of consumers downloading apps through the Google Play Store. Furthermore, Google alleges the plaintiffs would strengthen the larger app developers by making the services of the Google Play Store free.