Match Group Companies Seek Injunctive and Other Appropriate
Relief for the Material, Irreparable Harm Google's Manipulation,
Broken Promises, and Abuse of Power Have Caused
DALLAS, May 9, 2022
/PRNewswire/ -- Match Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:
MTCH) companies, including those that operate the dating apps
Tinder®, Match®, OkCupid®, and several others (collectively, "Match
Group"), today sued Google over its strategic manipulation of
markets, broken promises, and abuse of power in requiring Match
Group to use Google's billing system to remain in the Google Play
Store. Google's requirement will eliminate user choice on Match
Group apps and increase costs to consumers by allowing Google to
charge Match Group an arbitrary and discriminatory tax of 15% on
all subscriptions and up to 30% on all other in-app purchases,
amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars in inflated "fees,"
while monetizing the personal data of billions of digital app
users. Google has monopolized the Google Play Store and is now
abusing its power.
Read the lawsuit HERE
Read more about Match Group's case: endthegoogletax.com
"Ten years ago, Match Group was Google's partner. We are now its
hostage," the lawsuit alleges. Google lured app developers like
Match Group to its platform with assurances that they could offer
users a choice over how to pay for the goods and services they
want. But once it monopolized the market for Android app
distribution with Google Play by riding the coattails of the most
popular app developers, Google sought to ban alternative in-app
payment processing platforms so it could take a cut of nearly every
in-app transaction on Android, despite the fact that users choose
Tinder's billing options over Google Play Billing a majority of the
time. Google Play Billing inhibits Match Group's ability to provide
its users with the best experience possible. And Google Play
Billing is inferior, lacking capabilities Match Group's payment
systems currently offer. (Read more about this HERE).
"Earlier this year, when Google touted the benefits of 'user
choice,' I was hopeful they were going to lead the way to a fairer
Google Play Store. Unfortunately, their demand that we now remove
user choice from our apps, something we've offered for years, and
mandate their billing system which doesn't have many features our
users are used to and depend on, can only mean they don't really
care whether users are harmed in their efforts to extract their
unfair share of fees from developers like us, while regulators in
the U.S. are investigating this very issue, and regulators abroad
are calling it illegal," said Shar
Dubey, Chief Executive Officer of Match Group, Inc. "They
control app distribution on Android devices, and pretend that
developers could successfully reach consumers on Android elsewhere.
It's like saying 'you don't have to take the elevator to get to the
60th floor of a building, you can always scale the outside wall.'
It's not legitimate. This lawsuit is a measure of last resort. We
tried, in good faith, to resolve these concerns with Google, but
their insistence and threats to remove our brands' apps from the
Google Play Store by June 1 has left
us no choice but to take legal action."
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern
District of California, alleges
that Google has violated Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, the
California Cartwright Act, the California Unfair Competition Law,
and California tort law through
its unlawful mandate requiring select app developers to exclusively
use Google Play Billing to process payments.
The Google Play Store is essentially the only viable mobile app
distribution channel on smart devices running Android OS. Over 90%
of all downloads of Android apps occur through the Google Play
Store. Google seeks to exert that dominance over app developers and
users to force them to exclusively use Google Play Billing, which
extracts a tax as high as 30% on each transaction. Google describes
this tax as a "fee" despite being nearly 10 times larger than the
fees charged by payment processors in competitive marketplaces.
Google, in trying to attract the top apps to Google Play, had
previously assured Match Group that if it enabled in-app purchases
in its dating apps on Android, Match Group could use its own
payment systems. Google then pulled a bait-and-switch by announcing
that it would begin requiring all apps that sell "digital goods and
services" - a term it applies arbitrarily - to exclusively use
Google Play Billing despite its previous assurances to the contrary
to Match Group and other developers. If Match Group does not comply
with the new policy by June 1, Google
has threatened to remove Match Group apps from the Google Play
Store. In fact, Google has already begun rejecting Match Group app
updates that have not removed long-existing alternative payment
systems.
By insisting on exclusive use of Google Play Billing, Google
seeks to insert itself as a middleman between users and developers,
preventing Match Group from directly servicing its customers on
many important issues. If Google is allowed to enforce this
mandate, Match Group would suffer irreparable damage to its
customer relationships, reputation, business performance, and
goodwill and its users will be harmed by increased prices and
Google's monetization of their data.
Google has also been sued by a coalition of 37 state Attorneys
General seeking to prevent the same illegal conduct, and there have
been investigations by the U.S. House and Senate, the European
Commission, and government entities in India, France, Germany, Japan, the U.K., Australia, and South
Africa, with some litigation resulting in billions of
dollars in fines. (Read more about this HERE).
About Match Group
Match Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MTCH),
through its portfolio companies, is a leading provider of digital
technologies designed to help people make meaningful connections.
Our global portfolio of brands includes Tinder®, Match®, Hinge®,
Meetic®, OkCupid®, Pairs™, PlentyOfFish®, OurTime®, Azar®, Hakuna
Live™, and more, each built to increase our users' likelihood of
connecting with others. Through our trusted brands, we provide
tailored services to meet the varying preferences of our users. Our
services are available in over 40 languages to our users all over
the world.
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SOURCE Match Group