App-store rival sues Google
Aptoide filed a U.S. lawsuit accusing Google of monopolising Android app distribution and billing, alleging Google unlawfully shut out competing app stores. The suit arrives amid other legal setbacks for Google's app‑store policies and follows a separate ruling that found Google's search business an illegal monopoly. The complaint targets distribution and monetisation practices rather than app content alone. (reuters.com)
Aptoide sued Google in San Francisco on April 14, accusing it of illegally locking up Android app downloads and in-app payments. (reuters.com) The plaintiff is a Portuguese company that runs an Android app store focused on mobile games and says it is the world’s third-largest Android app store. The lawsuit seeks an injunction against Google’s practices and treble damages under United States antitrust law. (reuters.com) At the center of the case is Android app distribution: how users install apps, and billing: how developers collect money inside those apps. Aptoide says Google used control of the Google Play store and Google Play Billing to keep rival stores too small to pressure its prices and rules. (reuters.com) The case lands after Google lost a major fight with Epic Games over the same Android markets. In July 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a jury verdict that Google illegally maintained monopoly power in Android app distribution and Android in-app billing services. (ca9.uscourts.gov) That Epic case also produced a three-year injunction aimed at opening Android to more app-store competition. The appellate ruling said the order bars Google from paying developers, device makers, or carriers to advantage the Play Store over rivals. (law.justia.com) Aptoide’s lawsuit adds another private challenge while Google is already under pressure in Washington over search. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on August 5, 2024, that Google unlawfully maintained monopolies in general search and search text advertising. (justice.gov) (congress.gov) Aptoide has fought Google before in Europe. Reuters reported that Aptoide filed a complaint with European Union antitrust authorities in 2014, years before this new United States case. (reuters.com) Google did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on the new suit. In the earlier Epic litigation, Google argued that Android competes with Apple and that its rules protect security and user experience, arguments the Ninth Circuit said did not undo the jury’s verdict. (reuters.com) (ca9.uscourts.gov) The new case now heads into the same Northern District of California court system that handled Epic’s challenge. For Google, it means another round of scrutiny over the same question Aptoide is pressing now: who gets to control Android’s app storefronts and checkout lanes. (cand.uscourts.gov) (reuters.com)
