Google Paid Blizzard to Stay on Play Store

Florian Mueller:

The world now knows that in January 2020, Google signed a three-year agreement with Activision Blizzard King (“ABK”), “pursuant to which Google agreed to pay ABK approximately $360 million” in order to dissuade Activision Blizzard from creating its own Android app store. Three-hundred and sixty million dollars for not competing.

That number would be staggering under any circumstances, but it couldn’t have been revealed at a more important point in time: as antitrust authorities in the U.S. (Federal Trade Commission (FTC)), EU (Directorate General for Competition (DG COMP) of the European Commission), and the UK (Competition & Markets Authority (CMA)) have to make their next decisions on Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. While Sony is the only vocal complainant, Google is also known to have been lobbying behind the scenes.

Previously:

• Microsoft Acquires Activision Blizzard
• Lawsuit Alleges Google Paid Apple to Stay Out of Search
• Court Documents About Epic v. Google and App Store
• Google Considered Buying Epic
• States v. Google Play Store
• Google Antitrust Lawsuit
• Epic Sues Over Google Play Store, Too

Activision Blizzard Android Android App Antitrust Business Epic Google Google Play Store Lawsuit Legal

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