According to a court filing, Alphabet Inc's Google has agreed to pay $90 million to settle a legal dispute with app developers over the money they earned creating apps for Android phones and enticing users to make in-app purchases.
In a lawsuit filed in the federal court in San Francisco, the app developers had accused Google of using agreements with phone makers, technical barriers and revenue sharing agreements to effectively shut down the app ecosystem, and shunt most payments through its Google Play billing system with a default service fee of 30%.
Google said in a blog post that it would put $90 million in a fund to support developers who made $2 million or less in annual revenue from 2016 -- 2021, as part of the proposed settlement.
A large majority of US developers who earned revenue through Google Play will be eligible to receive money from this fund, if they choose to do so, Google said in a blog post.
Google will charge developers a 15% commission on their first million in revenue from the Google Play Store each year. It started doing this in the year 2021.
The proposed settlement must be approved by the court.
There were 48,000 app developers who were eligible to apply for the $90 million fund, and the minimum payout is $250, according to Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, who represented the plaintiffs.
Apple Inc. decided to loosen App Store restrictions on small developers last year, striking a deal in class action. It agreed to pay $100 million.
In Washington, Congress is considering legislation that would require Google and Apple to allow sideloading, or the practice of downloading apps without an app store. Google already allows sideloading. It would prevent them from requiring that app providers use Google and Apple's payment systems.