SAN FRANCISCO — California Attorney General Rob Bonta touted a $700 million settlement from Google on Tuesday as an example of how he is putting the tech giant on notice for its allegedly anticompetitive business practices.
Bonta, a Democrat and potential candidate for governor in 2026, has increasingly sought to portray himself as a policeman overseeing Big Tech, one of the state’s most lucrative industries. He said his office wants to send a warning to Google and other “greedy corporations” that they cannot flout antitrust laws.
“When you’re large and you have a lot of leverage and power, I think there’s a lot of temptation to use it to pad your profits, and generate as much revenue as possible,” Bonta told reporters during a news conference at his San Francisco office.
He added, “To all corporations doing business in California, if you use your power to illegally bend the market … we’ll hold you accountable, we’ll see you in court.”
Bonta didn’t lead the multi-state lawsuit over Google’s app store policies on Android devices, a case that was initiated shortly after he took office in 2021. The lawsuit included 36 state attorneys general and was led by Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, a Republican. It targeted Google for forcing app developers to pay a commission to use its app store.
The settlement is no windfall for Android users — Bonta said it will result in minimum $2 payments for about 102 million people nationwide who’ve used the Google Play Store.
More significantly, Bonta said, the settlement requires Google to change its practices, including by allowing Android users to install apps on their devices from third-party stores outside the Google Play Store.