Washington, D.C. — The American Economic Liberties Project today filed an amicus brief supporting class certification in Mary Carr v. Google LLC, an antitrust lawsuit alleging that Google used a series of anticompetitive tactics to make Google Play Store a monopoly, leading to supra-competitive prices for consumers buying apps and in-app content for their Android devices.

“Overturning Judge Donato’s class certification order would allow Google to weaponize its size to avoid liability and subvert the most fundamental goals of our antitrust laws. A class action is the only realistic way for consumers to recover the billions Google extorted from this with its monopoly power, and the Ninth Circuit should affirm the decision below,” said Katherine Van Dyck, Senior Counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project. “The Sherman Act and the federal rules allowing class actions were explicitly created to level the playing field and give victims of corporate power a fair opportunity in our economy and our judicial system.”

“The plaintiffs have, through a highly respected economist, shown that they were hurt too, not just the developers.” Van Dyck added. “Google’s appeal should never have gotten this far, and we have asked the Ninth Circuit to rule in the consumers favor now.”

In December 2022, a group of consumers and developers filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google alleging that the corporation’s monopoly power over its app markets allowed the company to impose supra-competitive commissions on app developers, which in turn were passed on to consumers in the form of supra-competitive prices — meaning pricing above what can be sustained in a competitive market. The developers settled with Google for $90 million. The consumers in the case sought Consumer Class certification, which would turn the lawsuit into a class-action antitrust lawsuit. After the court granted their motion, Google appealed this decision. Parallel actions by 37 state attorneys general and the individual plaintiffs are set for trial in San Francisco in November.

Read the full amicus brief here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.