Aptoide sues Google in U.S. court

Aptoide sued Google in federal court in San Francisco on April 14, accusing it of illegally locking up Android app distribution and in-app billing. (reuters.com) The complaint seeks a court order to stop the conduct and asks for treble damages, the triple-damages remedy available in United States antitrust cases. Reuters reported the suit was filed Tuesday in the Northern District of California. (reuters.com) Aptoide is based in Lisbon and says it is the world’s third-largest Android app store. Reuters said the company told the court it had about 436,000 apps and more than 200 million annual users by 2024. (reuters.com) The case turns on a simple fight over how Android software reaches phones and how developers get paid. Aptoide says Google controls both the storefront and the checkout lane, making it harder for rival stores to reach users at scale. (reuters.com) Aptoide’s filing points to Google Play Protect, Android’s app-scanning system, as one of the pressure points. Google says Play Protect scans apps during installation, also checks apps already on devices, and can ask users to send apps installed from outside Google Play for review. (support.google.com) That security layer matters because Android allows apps from outside Google Play, but outside stores still face warnings, scans, and extra setup steps that can slow downloads. Google’s own support pages describe alternative billing and user-choice billing programs, but they apply through specific eligibility rules and regional programs rather than as a universal default. (support.google.com) (developer.android.com) The lawsuit lands after Google already lost a major Android app-store antitrust trial to Epic Games in December 2023. A federal judge in San Francisco then issued a permanent injunction on October 7, 2024, ordering changes that included letting rival stores access Google Play’s catalog of apps for three years. (cravath.com) (storage.googleapis.com) Google did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on Aptoide’s suit. In March 2026, however, Google said it was entering “a new era for choice and openness” with more billing options, a program for registered app stores, and lower fees and new developer programs. (reuters.com) (android-developers.googleblog.com) The new case puts Google’s Android rules back in front of the same federal court system that has already spent years testing how open Android really is. The next fight is likely to center on whether Google’s security and payment rules protect users, as Google says, or fence out rivals, as Aptoide claims. (reuters.com) (support.google.com)