latest
Google countersues Epic for the money it made by breaking Play Store rules
After courts ordered a similar payment to be made to Apple last month
Epic’s fight against the tech industry continues. Just a few weeks after its lawsuit against Apple came to a close — pending appeals, of course — there’s a new development in another court case. Epic’s case against Google has yet to conclude, and there’s a new twist unfolding more than a year later: Google is fighting back.
Russia threatens to block YouTube after it suspended a state news channel over COVID misinformation
Russia suspects that Germany is behind the ban, claiming the country is starting a media war
Russia and Google have never been best friends, but things are about to get much worse if the two parties can't find an agreement in the latest dispute. After YouTube deleted the Germany-based branch of Russia's state television network Russia Today (RT) over COVID-19 misinformation, Russia has threatened to fully block the video streaming service in the country if it doesn't re-instate RT Germany. The country has additionally threatened Germany it would block German media, suspecting the government behind YouTube's decision to ban RT Germany.
Google's anti-competitive behavior costs it another $177 million
It's South Korea's turn to dish out an antitrust fine this time around
Only a couple of weeks after the South Korean government passed a bill that will force Google (and Apple) to allow app developers to receive payments via third-party systems, the country's regulator has dealt another huge blow to the Mountain View company. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has announced that it's fining Google's parent company Alphabet the modest sum of $177 million for abusing its dominance in the smartphone OS market.
It looks like Google's willing to bend the Play Store rules if you're a big enough customer
The fallout from numerous antitrust lawsuits continue
The last couple of years have brought increased scrutiny on Google Play's power over Android developers, especially in the wake of its lawsuit with Epic. The company followed Apple's lead back in March, lowering its fees to 15% for the first $1 million in revenue. A newly unsealed consumer lawsuit involving Google has revealed some new facts about how the Play Store is managed behind the scenes, including a secret deal made with Netflix.
Apple tries to wiggle out of in-app billing lawsuit by making the smallest changes possible
Let them send emails
Yesterday, Apple issued a press release that stated the company was willing to make a handful of changes to the App Store to try to wiggle out of a lawsuit regarding the App Store's billing policies. While many are positioning these changes as some long-awaited reversal of the App Store's anticompetitive practices, the strict facts of the concession are much milder. Apple has merely agreed that developers can tell users they can make purchases outside the iOS app. That's it.
Google's facing fresh anti-competitive criticism and to no one's surprise it's all about the Play Store
The legal battle with Epic is the gift that keeps on giving
Epic Games and Google have been butting heads for well over a year at this point, and their fight is all about how developers sell apps (and make money) on Android. Now a court order this week has just made public some freshly unredacted documents in the ongoing Epic v. Google lawsuit, publicly revealing some of the seemingly anti-competitive actions that Google was taking in order to —using language from the antitrust complaint itself— limit the "contagion of competition" and keep the Play Store thriving. (Well, according to Epic, at least.) And to hear these accusations, Google was going to great lengths to both keep developers using the Play Store (and putting up with Google taking a 30% cut of their revenue) and phone makers invested in Google's ecosystem.
So, remember that big $12 you were expecting from the Google+ class action suit? Well, about that...
Hope you saved room for taco — that one, singular taco you can now afford
It might feel like Google+ has been dead for half a decade, but actually, it only shut down back in 2019 in response to several privacy-related issues and bugs. A class-action lawsuit filed by affected users followed shortly after that, and last summer, we finally started to hear about a settlement. While the payout number previously floated sounded small, the new amount makes the old one look like a jackpot.
Google tries to move the goalposts in response to Play Store antitrust suit
A lengthy blog post attempts to dismiss some of the complaints made by dozens of state attorneys
It's been less than a day since a coalition of dozens of US states sued Google in a federal court for antitrust behavior, citing its collection of fees for distribution on the Play Store. Google has fired back with a lengthy blog post in the standard corporate "nu-uh" counter.
Google just got handed a massive multi-state antitrust lawsuit over Play Store fees
It's only the latest in a long line of Google's ongoing legal woes
The mobile market has been hemming and hawing over the cuts that Google and Apple take for distributing mobile apps ever since Epic made its big stink over Fortnite last year. It looks like that story is having a domino effect, as a new lawsuit against Google has been filed in United States federal court. No less than thirty-six states and the District of Columbia, representing more than half the country, are suing Google for monopolistic practices.
Amazon kicks yet another budget electronics brand off the store
Choetech is the latest to be pruned, after other tech companies like Aukey and RavPower
Another month, another victim of Amazon's increased scrutiny. Coming on the heels of takedowns for both Aukey and RavPower, search results for Choetech's lineup of chargers, USB-C hubs, and cables have mysteriously gone blank. While we can't say for sure what happened here, it seems like another case of Amazon issuing removals for companies not following the rules.
Check your bank account: another round of Nexus 6P settlements is being distributed
Nearly a year and a half after the initial payments went out
It's a tale as old as time: phone arrives on store shelves to great reviews, phone reveals itself to have serious problems, customers file a class-action lawsuit. The Nexus 6P may have started on a strong note, but it didn't take long to develop issues with premature shutdowns and bootlooping. Huawei and Google paid out settlements to owners early last year, but it seems like another series of payments are making their way into bank accounts.
Amazon delists RavPower, TaoTronics, and Vava as its crackdown on fake reviews continues
All three brands share the same parent company
Read update
Fake reviews are a real problem in online commerce. If you're trying to shop for a new gadget, you're bound to look at customer feedback to see the real pros and cons of real-world owners. A month after cracking down on fake reviews from Aukey, Amazon has returned to continue cleaning out its storefront. This time, RavPower, TaoTronics, and dashcam company Vava have all found themselves in the hot seat, as all three companies have disappeared from the world's largest marketplace.Though Amazon started with RavPower on Wednesday, the delisting expanded to include TaoTronics and Vava on Thursday morning. All three brands share a parent company in Sunvalley, specializing in various consumer electronics like chargers, headphones, USB lights, and more.Just like with Aukey, Mpow, and several other brands before it, these takedowns spawn from promised gift cards in exchange for leaving reviews for products sold on Amazon. After posting, users could contact the provided email address with their order ID and review URL to score some free cash. Amazon's actions come just a few days after Nicole Nguyen of The Wall Street Journal ran a story about RavPower's offer included with her charger.[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/nicnguyen/status/1405202548760334339[/EMBED_TWITTER]While actual buyers do leave these reviews, Amazon doesn't allow incentivization in its store, considering these posts just as "fake" as any other scam. It's a shame to see RavPower delisted for its review strategy since its products are genuinely excellent, especially for the price. I personally own a RavPower charger and power bank, and both have served me well over the years. Unfortunately, this could be it for yet another major seller on Amazon. After all, it's been more than a month since Aukey was banned from the site, and its products have yet to return to its store page.
Sonos is giving some serious side-eye to Google's assertion that Assistant and Alexa can't play nicely
More fuel for the fire in the ongoing legal skirmish
It's no secret that Sonos and Google aren't best friends right now. The companies are currently involved in several different lawsuits regarding intellectual property theft and copyright infringement, and it doesn't seem like the relationship will improve anytime soon. Sonos's Chief Legal Officer Eddie Lazarus delivered remarks to the Senate Judiciary antitrust committee yesterday, calling for action on a lack of interoperability procedures preventing them from using multiple voice assistants at once.
Biden revokes Trump's order to ban TikTok and WeChat
They’ll still face scrutiny from the US Department of Commerce
While the executive order by Donald Trump to ban TikTok and WeChat never came into force, the Biden administration has revoked it in favor of evidence-based investigations of foreign-controlled applications that could pose a security risk to Americans and their data.
WhatsApp's spat with Indian govt has reached the 'no U are' stage
Accusations of human rights violations are being tossed around like so much volleyball
It was only recently that India filed a petition against WhatsApp to block its new privacy policy. While that matter hasn't completely settled yet, the Facebook-owned company is now suing the government over new regulations that it claims "severely undermine the privacy" of users and compromise end-to-end encryption.
Sonos could get a whole bunch of Google products banned in Germany — is the US next?
The Pixel 4a, YouTube Music, Nest speakers, and potentially more might be affected
You may have heard that Sonos and Google are involved in a dispute over patent infringement in the US, with Sonos claiming that the search company used its power to steal intellectual property when they first partnered up. The legal debate isn't limited by borders, though. Sonos also brought Google to court in Germany, where it has managed to enforce a preliminary sales ban of a whole bunch of Google products using the Cast protocol.
Germany just banned WhatsApp's new privacy policy, and all of the EU might be next
Facebook isn't allowed to process personal data from WhatsApp for its own purposes in Germany
Read update
WhatsApp's controversial new privacy policy is slated to go into effect on May 15 worldwide — except for in Germany. The country has been scrutinizing the new WhatsApp privacy policy since mid-April, and a data regulation body finally decided to enforce a ban on the revision using procedures introduced with the European GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
Aukey products disappearing from Amazon amid fake review allegations
Records of the practice surfaced on a freely accessible server earlier
Aukey is among our favorite brands when it comes to affordable and powerful chargers, but some evidence is mounting that legitimate reviews might not be enough for the company. A 7GB data leak on an unsecured Chinese server (spotted by SafetyDetectives) exposed a number of Amazon sellers offering customers free products in exchange for favorable reviews, and it looks like Aukey is one of the companies caught in the middle of this scheme. Amazon has taken action and removed almost all products sold by the company.Looking at Aukey's Amazon page, you'll quickly notice that almost all products it sells have either disappeared or have a "currently unavailable" tag attached to them. The same is true for search. While a few products still show up, with some even available for purchase, you'll mostly only find offers from the competition.
Samsung sued over fragile camera glass on the Galaxy S20 series
Samsung hasn't taken corrective measures even after acknowledging the problem
Samsung is being sued, but no, it's not by Apple this time. The lawsuit was filed by disgruntled Galaxy S20 series owners facing issues with the camera module's glass fracturing or shattering without any external force being applied to it. While the problem isn't widespread, it should have been notable enough to warrant Samsung's attention — but apparently, the company largely tried to ignore it.
One Apple exec actually wanted to bring iMessage to Android back in 2013
Apple already admitted that iMessage for Android was killed to keep its walled garden
The legal conflict between Epic Games and Apple has already had some fairly substantial fallout. The court of public opinion pressed Apple and Google to reduce marketplace fees for developers on the App Store and Play Store, and a number of Apple's antics have fallen under the scrutiny of politicians and the general public. The hearing also shined light on iMessage's Apple exclusivity, with the company admitting that it kept the messaging platform from Android in order to create a lock-in effect. But apparently that stance wasn't shared with everyone across the board. It turns out that Apple executive Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013, only to be shut down by peers, as a new deposition shows.