Advertisers push arbitration; Aptoide sues Google

Google is facing a new two-front antitrust fight: advertisers are organizing mass arbitration claims, and Aptoide has sued over Android app-store access. (searchengineland.com) (reuters.com) Search Engine Land reported on April 14 that advertisers are preparing claims worth billions of dollars, arguing they overpaid because of Google’s conduct in search and advertising technology. The effort uses mass arbitration, a tactic that files large numbers of individual claims at once under companies’ own contract terms. (searchengineland.com) Reuters reported on April 14 that Aptoide, a Portugal-based rival app store, sued Google in federal court in San Francisco. Aptoide said Google used its control of Android app distribution and in-app billing to block competing stores from gaining scale in the United States. (reuters.com) The advertiser claims build on two recent court losses for Google. In August 2024, a federal judge in Washington found Google had illegally maintained monopolies in internet search and search text ads, and in April 2025, a federal judge in Virginia ruled Google liable for monopolizing key ad-tech markets. (justice.gov 1) (justice.gov 2) Those rulings matter because they give private plaintiffs a court record to point to while seeking money, not just regulatory fixes. Search Engine Land said advertisers are targeting alleged overcharges tied to Google’s search and ad-tech businesses rather than waiting for government remedies alone. (searchengineland.com) (justice.gov) Mass arbitration turns a company’s mandatory arbitration clause into a volume problem. Instead of one class action, thousands of individual claims can force a company to pay filing fees and fight case by case, a structure Bloomberg said is now being aimed at Google by advertisers including companies that bought ads through its systems. (bloomberg.com) (searchengineland.com) The Aptoide case lands after Google already lost to Epic Games before a jury over Android app distribution and Google Play billing. The Ninth Circuit said in 2025 that Google had to comply with key injunction provisions aimed at restoring competition in Android app distribution, though it extended the compliance timeline for some provisions to 10 months after the mandate. (courtlistener.com) (cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov) Aptoide said Google’s restrictions kept rival stores from reaching users even though Android is marketed as an open ecosystem. Reuters reported that Google denied the claims and said Android has always supported multiple app stores and that Aptoide itself has been available on Android devices for years. (reuters.com) Google has also pushed back in the ad-tech cases, saying proposed government remedies could raise costs for publishers and advertisers. In the search monopoly case, the Justice Department said the court barred Google from maintaining exclusive distribution contracts and ordered data-sharing and syndication steps to help rivals compete. (searchengineland.com) (justice.gov) The next phase is less about whether Google is dominant than about who gets paid and what Google must change. Advertisers are trying to turn monopoly findings into damages, while Aptoide is trying to turn them into a bigger opening for alternative Android stores. (searchengineland.com) (reuters.com)