Home » Business News » Google sues Match in row over app store policies

Google sues Match in row over app store policies

By Nithya Bose in Business News, posted July 14, 2022

Google has filed a counter-suit against Match Group, saying that the dating app company breached App Store contract.

The search engine giant is attempting to remove Match, which operates Tinder, Match, and OkCupid, from its Google Play app store.

Match brought a case against Google in May, claiming that the search giant unjustly wanted the company's dating applications to solely utilize Google's billing system in order to be included in its app store.

Google said in its lawsuit that the online dating service violated the developer distribution agreement it signed by employing its own external payment systems in its applications rather than its billing system.

It also claims the firm also violated the terms of the contract by neglecting to pay Google service fees for in-app transactions.

The dating company is aiming to gain an edge over other app developers that fulfill their agreements by attempting to avoid making payments to Google.

Google said: “Match Group never intended to comply with the contractual terms to which it agreed, and deceived Google by misrepresenting its true intentions.”

“Instead, Match Group provokes this legal and public relations confrontation in an attempt to deprive Google of the benefit of its bargain with Match Group and to gain unfair advantage over other app developers.”

The firm claimed in a statement that Google's app store standards, known as Google Play, are anti-competitive and violate federal and state law.

The company said: “This countersuit is a prime example of a monopoly using its power to frighten other developers into submission.”

“Google doesn’t want anyone else to sue them so their counterclaims are designed as a warning shot.”

A Google spokesperson disputed Match's assertions as unfounded.

They said: “Match Group entered into a contract with us and this suit seeks to hold Match to its end of the agreement. We’re looking forward to making our case.”

Match claims that the tech giant had informed it that its dating applications will be able to utilize their own payment mechanism for in-app purchases on Android smartphones.

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Google said in its countersuit that the dating service wrongly asserted that the payments policy did not apply to its applications.

The firm purposefully deceived Google after being notified it had to comply with the app store's payment policy by falsely declaring it would follow the contractual agreement.

Google and Apple were sued and investigated in a number of countries for their billing-system practices, which offer the tech giants up to 30 percent of in-app payments.

Spotify Technology SA and Google established an agreement in March for an alternate payment option for in-app purchases.

The California-based company mentions that Spotify is one of a small number of developers taking part in a test program that allows for alternate buying alternatives.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

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