The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has approved a £260m settlement for UK app developers for alleged losses caused by commissions charged on Google Play Store transactions.
It is the largest settlement payout the CAT has approved to date, with a £160m fund set aside to compensate eligible developers, including sole traders and SMEs.
A £100m stakeholder pot – to pay the funder, Bench Walk Advisers, and the lawyers, experts and counsel – will cover the legal costs, insurance and third-party funding.
The settlement, which was announced earlier this month, resolves proceedings brought by competition law academic Professor Barry Rodger who alleged on behalf of the class that Google abused its dominant position to the detriment of UK app developers selling to Android customers via Google Play from August 2018.
The amount each affected developer receives will depend on their qualifying Play Store sales during the relevant period.
UK app developers are being encouraged to register on the claim’s website so they can be notified once the claims process opens.
Stakeholder payments, meanwhile, will only be made once the claim period closes and the sums due to developers are known. At that point the CAT will approve any further payment to stakeholders.
Rodger, as class representative, is expected to seek approval for any remaining balance to go first towards outstanding stakeholder entitlements, with any further balance distributed to developers who have made claims on a pro rata basis.
However, Google is expected to make its own submissions about how these funds should be distributed.
Rodger described the settlement as a “historic outcome for thousands of UK app developers and for the UK’s collective action regime”, adding: “This pay-out will benefit developers of every size, from individuals and start-ups to established companies, who sold apps or digital content through the Google Play Store.”
Damien Geradin, founding partner of Geradin Partners, which advised on the claim, said: “Delivering a pay-out of this scale for class members, and seeing it endorsed by the tribunal, is a first since the UK collective proceedings regime was introduced in 2015, and Geradin Partners is proud to have acted for [Professor] Rodger in reaching this historic achievement.”
Rodger was represented at the hearing by Robert O’Donoghue KC of Brick Court Chambers, Anneliese Blackwood of Monckton Chambers and Bethanie Chambers of XXIV Old Buildings, instructed by Geradin Partners.
The settlement was reached without any admission of liability or wrongdoing by Google, which denied the allegations. Google was represented by Kassie Smith KC of Monckton Chambers, instructed by RPC, which was contacted for comment.
Neil Purslow, chairman of the executive committee of the International Legal Finance Association, said the settlement: “vindicates the opt-out collective actions regime at an important moment for its future”.
He added: “As the government considers the future of the regime, this case is proof the system can deliver. This is a young regime that should be nurtured and expanded, not constrained, so more consumers and small businesses can hold powerful defendants to account.”
A claim brought by class representative Liz Coll, advised by Hausfeld on behalf of around 20 million UK Android users is expected to proceed to trial in October. Valued at around £1bn, it represents a substantially larger class than Rodger’s.
Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]
