Google faces legal pressure

Google is fighting on two new legal fronts at once: a rival app store sued over Android distribution, and advertisers are preparing mass arbitration claims over ad prices. (usnews.com, claimsjournal.com) Aptoide, a Lisbon-based Android app store, sued Google in San Francisco federal court on Tuesday, April 14, accusing it of monopolizing Android app distribution and billing. Aptoide said Google’s conduct shut out smaller rivals and blocked them from winning top developers and exclusive content. (usnews.com) The suit seeks an injunction and treble damages, the antitrust multiplier that can triple proven losses. Aptoide said it had about 436,000 apps and more than 200 million annual users by 2024, and argued it could have put more pressure on Google’s pricing and policies without Google’s restrictions. (usnews.com) At the same time, advertisers are organizing a different kind of case: mass arbitration. That process bundles at least 25 individual arbitration claims against one company, even when contracts block a normal court lawsuit. (claimsjournal.com) Chicago law firm Keller Postman said it is signing up thousands of advertisers that bought Google search and display ads, arguing they paid inflated prices because Google abused monopoly power. Ashley Keller told AdExchanger the firm’s theory is that monopoly power led to higher prices than a competitive market would have produced. (adexchanger.com) Those arbitration claims lean on two court losses Google has already suffered. On August 5, 2024, a federal judge in Washington ruled that Google illegally maintained monopolies in general search and general search text advertising, and on April 17, 2025, a federal judge in Virginia ruled that Google violated antitrust law in open-web digital advertising markets. (justice.gov, justice.gov) The advertiser push could be expensive because the claims are being filed one by one, not as a class action. Keller estimated potential claims tied to online search and display ads could reach $218 billion or more, and said the first filings were expected this week. (claimsjournal.com) Google said in a recent corporate filing that it faces private damages claims tied to antitrust cases around the world and cannot estimate a possible loss. The company also said, “We believe we have strong arguments against these open claims and will defend ourselves vigorously.” (claimsjournal.com) The Aptoide case extends a fight Google was already having with app-store rivals after Epic Games won a jury verdict in 2023 over Google Play competition. Reuters reported that Google agreed in November 2025 to make Android and app store changes to settle that five-year-old Epic case. (usnews.com) If the cases move forward, the pressure lands on two engines of Google’s business at once: how Android apps are distributed and how ads are sold and priced. The next milestones are early arbitration filings and Google’s response to Aptoide’s complaint in federal court. (claimsjournal.com, usnews.com)