Google and the USA: the controversies and effects worldwide

The fact – Google has been accused by 36 US states of having anti-competitive attitudes regarding the Android Play Store. The latter has an open source procedure, and Google is going to capitalize with additions of services and Play Store. How? Taking share in sales and driving consumers to purchase through the app. This problem was highlighted above all by Epic Games, which is the developer of the «Fortnite» game, banned from various stores because it required different forms of payment to obtain the app.

The consequences – Google and Apple have decided to lower tariffs, raising doubts about the competitive market: reducing tariffs leads to a reduction in costs and personnel. The moral is that with this gesture they have aggravated the situation, since they have allowed a preferential path to the apps present in their operating systems, tending to occupy an excessively dominant position, especially in the US markets.

The answer – Google reacted well to the lawsuit, supporting the values ​​of freedom underlying the operating system: the Play Store, and Android in general, allows competitors to offer new devices. In addition, there are other stores to turn to (e.g. Amazon AppStore). This is a move against Google, which would be to the detriment of small developers, and in support of large players.