Attorney General Griffin Secures $4.7 Million in Restitution for Arkansans in Google Settlement

Griffin: ‘I am pleased with the outcome of this case and glad that affected Arkansans will receive restitution’

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin today announced a settlement with Google over its Play Store for Android apps and issued the following statement:

“A bipartisan group of 53 attorneys general has settled with Google, requiring the company to pay $700 million and to stop its anticompetitive practices. Of the $700 million, Google will pay $630 million in restitution, including a little more than $4.7 million to Arkansans who were harmed by Google’s anticompetitive conduct. The other $70 million are penalties that will be paid out to the states and territories that sued Google.

“The primary issue in this suit was that Google monopolized the market for Android app distribution and in-app payment processing, using anti-competitive practices to limit consumer access to rival app stores. I am pleased with the outcome of this case and glad that affected Arkansans will receive restitution.”

Background

Consumers eligible for a restitution payment are those who made purchases on the Google Play Store between August 2016 and September 2023 and were harmed by Google’s anticompetitive practices. Such consumers will not have to submit a claim to receive their payment. They will receive payment automatically through PayPal or Venmo, or they can elect to receive a check or Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfer.

The settlement requires Google to reform its business practices in the following ways:

• Give all developers the ability to allow users to pay through in-app billing systems other than Google Play Billing for at least five years.
• Allow developers to offer cheaper prices for their apps and in-app products for consumers who use alternative, non-Google billing systems for at least five years.
• Permit developers to steer consumers toward alternative, non-Google billing systems by advertising cheaper prices within their apps themselves for at least five years.
• Not enter contracts that require the Play Store to the be the exclusive, pre-loaded app store on a device or home screen for at least five years.
• Allow the installation of third-party apps on Android phones from outside the Google Play Store for at least seven years.
• Revise and reduce the warnings that appear on an Android device if a user attempts to download a third-party app from outside the Google Play Store for at least 5 years.
• Maintain Android system support for third-party app stores, including allowing automatic updates, for four years.
• Not require developers to launch their app catalogs on the Play Store at the same time as they launch on other app stores for at least four years.
• Submit compliance reports to an independent monitor who will ensure that Google is not continuing its anticompetitive conduct for at least 5 years.

To read a copy of the settlement, click here.

About Attorney General Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.

Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 27 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.

He is currently serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana. His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Liberty (née Bragg), North Carolina, and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.

Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin attends Immanuel Baptist Church and lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.

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