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On Wednesday, December 10, it was announced that Google will be paying out nearly $700 million in settlements to people who paid money to download apps through the Google Play Store, which I would imagine includes many of the people watching this video right now. Now, this announcement, it came in the form of a statement from the Attorney General in multiple states who were collectively suing Google for anti competitive practices. Google decided to settle this lawsuit and in so doing, among several other concessions, they'll be paying out $700 million, the bulk of which is going to the actual users. And so let's go through the details of the case, what Google was accused of doing, how the settlement money will be dispersed, and also how you can know whether you qualify or not. And as always, before we jump into it, if you appreciate content like this and you hope more people will become aware that Google owes the money or well, I hope you smash those like and subscribe buttons so that this video can reach ever more people via the algorithm, which is ironically YouTube's algorithm owned by Google. So thank you for that. Now, the case in question stems back to the year 2020. That was when a company called Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, they filed a lawsuit against Google arguing that Google was unfairly controlling how apps were being distributed as well as paid for on Android phones. The crux of their argument was, was threefold. Firstly, Epic Games argued that Google was forcing app makers to use the Google Play Store, even though technically Android is supposed to be an open operating system. The lawsuit argued that Google was using things like contracts, warnings as well as general technical barriers to steer people back to the Google Play Store. Basically, the first argument in the case was that Google made it very hard for Android users to to get apps anywhere other than the Google Play Store. Then secondly, Google was forcing the apps on the Play Store to use Google's own payment system. And so for instance, if an app offered in game purchases, like for instance, the skins that are sold in the Fortnite game, Google required that the app use Google's own in app payment system, which of course sounds convenient until you learn that the price of that convenience will was that Google took a fat cut of the revenue. Oftentimes it was like 30% of the money. Epic Games in their Fortnite game, they wanted to use their own payment system to avoid that fee, but they weren't allowed. Then lastly, the third point in the case was related to anti competitive practices. The lawyers for Epic Games, they were able to show the court evidence that Google was paying phone makers cell phone Carriers and even other companies to, to not support either rival app stores or alternative payment methods. That argument, the third argument was that these deals basically stop any new competitors from being able to get any traction at all, creating in essence a monopoly type of situation. And so given these three arguments, what Epic Games did was that they intentionally broke Google's rules by adding their own payment system to Fortnite, specifically to the Fortnite app on Android. As expected, Google kicked Fortnite off the Play Store and Epic Games immediately filed a lawsuit claiming that Google's rules themselves were illegal. Now the case bounced around the court system for a while until three years later in 2023, a jury sided with Epic. The jury found that for one, Google illegally maintained monopoly power. Secondly, that Google's Play Store and payment rules unfairly harmed their competitors. And thirdly, Epic Games was indeed harmed by, by these practices. Now Google appealed that decision, but just earlier this year In July of 2025, the U.S. court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld jury verdict, meaning Google lost the appeal. And so all of that was the backstory for the settlement I mentioned at the top of the episode. The settlement which you can see up on your screen right there is fairly long. It's roughly 70 pages long. And included among the provisions is an agreement by Google to, to pay people who were harmed. Quote, Google has agreed to pay out a $700 million settlement to people who pay to download apps through the Google Play Store. The settlement filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California San Francisco Division in December of 2023 would direct most of the money to consumers who purchased apps via the Google Play Store and suffered harm from Google's alleged anti competitive practices. And by the way, the reason it says alleged practices is because even with this settlement, the Google continues to deny any wrongdoing. Now, out of the $700 million settlement, $70 million of it is going directly to the state while 630 million is earmarked to be given out to the consumers who were actually affected. And as such you had the Attorney general of all 50 states take legal action which culminated in the creation of this website right here. It's called Google Playstate Ag Antitrust litigation dot com. It'll of course also be linked down in the description box below. It is the official compensation website and it claims that anyone who made payments through either the Google Play Store and or through Google billing between August 16 of 2016 and September 30 of 2023 is eligible for compensation. Now, the amount of money that you actually stand to get is tied directly to how much money you spent on the Google Play Store during that period of time. And so it's not possible for me to give you an exact dollar amount of how much you'll be owed. Everyone will be different. If you spent more, you'll if you downloaded more apps, if you bought more in app purchases in your games, you stand to get a lot larger of a payout. Now, in terms of what you should do to be claiming your money, while the website says that you actually don't need to do anything Quote the settlement fund will make the majority of payments automatically and no claim form is necessary in most cases. Once the settlement has been approved by the court, you will receive an email from PayPal or a text from Venmo notifying you of your incoming payment at the email address or mobile phone number associated with your Google Play account. If that email address or phone number is also associated with a PayPal or Venmo account, then the payment will be made directly to that account. If that email address or phone number does not match an email address or phone number associated with a PayPal or Venmo account, then you have the option to create a new account or or redirect the payment to an account at another email address or phone number. Meaning in the meantime, while you're waiting for the payment, consider making sure that the email you have as your Google Play Store email is the same email on your PayPal or Venmo account. However, if either you don't have access to that email address anymore or you don't have a PayPal or Venmo account and you don't want to create one, there are alternate methods to get your money. Quote if you a do not have an existing PayPal or Venmo account and do not want to sign up for PayPal or Venmo or b no longer have access to the email address or mobile phone number associated with your Google Play account or c were expecting to receive a payment but did not, there will be a supplemental claims process after the automatic payments process is complete and for that supplemental process there is a page on the website where you can go ahead and enter your contact details so that you can get notified directly when that claims process begins. I'll throw the link to that page directly, the URL to it. You can find it down in the description box below. However, do know that by accepting this money you actually forfeit your right to sue Google independently for this whole antitrust Google Play Store issue. And if you for some reason anticipate wanting to sue Google yourself in the future for this. You have until February 19th of 2026 to exclude yourself from the settlement and in so doing retain your right to sue. Now, I of course doubt many people will go down that route, but the option is there. Again, everything that you need that's directly related to claiming your money or excluding yourself from the money will be down in the description box below. Now, for their part, Epic Games was actually not thrilled with the settlement, claiming that it was too small. Speaking with Ars Technica, you had the Epic Games Vice President for Public Policy say the following after the settlement cleared quote, the $700 million settlement's one time payout will provide no true relief for consumers or developers. Epic Games had originally sought a much higher settlement, asking for $10.5 billion in antitrust damages identified as Google's unjustly collected fees. Consumers will continue to overpay for digital goods as a result of Google's imposition of super competitive 30% fees for Google Play billing or 20% junk fees on top of payments Google isn't involved in processing. Developers will also continue to be restricted in how they distribute their apps, and developers who choose to use a third party payment option will be forced to use Google's deceptively labeled user choice billing system rather than having creative freedom over the design of their payment systems. The state settlement does not address the core of Google's unlawful and anti competitive behavior. I guess that's what you would call a bittersweet victory. And so there you have it. If you'd like to dig either deeper into the story yourself or find all the links to claim your money, everything will be down there in the description box below that same description box, right below those like and subscribe buttons. Both of which I hope you already smashed. But if not, here's another opportunity. And then lastly, if you appreciate this content and you think, hey, wait a minute, because of this information, Roman just helped me to claim a few extra dollars. $20, $40, $200, who knows. Again, it depends on how much you actually spend on the Play Store, but. But hey, I have more money in my pocket. What do I do with that money? Well, you're in luck because the Epic Times is running a phenomenal holiday sale. It's a trial offer on our subscription, just cost a few bucks, but you will get literally full subscription worth 100 plus dollars. So it's kind of an asymmetric purchase. You just pay a few a few dollars, but you get a full hundred plus dollar subscription with everything all the articles, the infographics, the analysis pieces, the documentaries, the video series, everything. Everything we've been putting up there for the last 25 years. And everything will be putting up there. As news breaks and develops into the future. You will get access to everything. So if you've been on the fence about trying the Epic Times, you don't know what you what you're going to do with your Google Play Store settlement money. Check it out. The link will be down there at the top of the description box. So in the description box, you click the buttons, you get your settlement. Also in the description box, you click the money to spend your settlement on a trial subscription to the Epoch Times. Hope you do. Because the Epoch Times is awesome. It supports my work, it supports the work we're doing, but it also gives you access to all the great content. So it's a win, win, win. Check it out. The link will be down there in the description box below. Hope you click on it and join us over@theepictimes.com and then until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epic Times. Stay informed. Most importantly.