Judge allows Alphabet to proceed as class action against Google Play Store

A U.S. judge in California on Monday allowed Alphabet Inc. to proceed as a consumer class action against 21 million people who accuse the company of violating U.S. anti-competition laws in how it runs its Google Play app store.

In a 27-sided order, U.S. district judge James Donato said the plaintiffs had established the legal elements of commonality and other factors to form a class action that alleges anticompetitive business practices.

The class members are Google Play Store individual consumers in 12 states, including Ohio, Michigan and Georgia, in addition to American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The case is among an array of pending antitrust actions against Google, and state prosecutors in more than three dozen other states have lodged similar claims against Google last year. The plaintiffs' lawyers are working together with the state enforcers in the newly certified class action.

Google denied the claims in the case before Donato, despite the fact that it defended its Play Store business practices.

A spokesman for Google said on Monday that they were evaluating the ruling and will assess our options after that. On Monday, lawyers for the company at Morgan, Lewis Bockius did not respond to a message seeking comment.

In arguing against class-action certification, attorneys for Google said the plaintiffs failed to show how they were harmed, an argument that Donato rejected.

A lead attorney for the class at plaintiffs' firm Bartlit Beck didn't want to make a statement.

The class attorneys allege that Google prevented app developers from steering customers to competitors and used misleading warnings to discourage customers from downloading apps outside the Google Play Store. They claimed that the plaintiffs and class members would have paid lower prices for apps and in-app purchases and would have benefited from expanded choice because of Google's anticompetitive conduct. A trial is scheduled to begin in June 2023.