Dating apps maker Match Group Inc sued Alphabet Inc’s Google on Monday, calling the motion a “last resort” to stop Tinder and its different apps from being booted off the Play retailer for refusing to share as much as 30 % of their gross sales.

Match’s lawsuit follows ongoing instances introduced by Fortnite maker Epic Games, dozens of US state attorneys basic and others in focusing on Google’s allegedly anticompetitive conduct with the Play retailer.

Google mentioned Match was trying to dodge paying for the numerous worth it receives.

“Like any business, we charge for our services, and like any responsible platform, we protect users against fraud,” Google mentioned. It has mentioned its fee device helps deter scams.

Match’s lawsuit, which was filed in federal court docket in California, accuses Google of violating federal and state antitrust legal guidelines and seeks to bar such habits.

It is notable as a result of a few of Match’s apps have been exempted from Google insurance policies for in regards to the previous decade. Now, Google says it is going to block downloads of these apps by June 1 until they solely supply its fee system and share income, the lawsuit states.

“This lawsuit is a measure of last resort,” Match Chief Executive Shar Dubey mentioned. “We tried, in good faith, to resolve these concerns with Google, but their insistence and threats has left us no choice.”

At stake for Match is what it describes as a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} in income that must be paid to Google.

The majority of customers on Match’s hottest app, Tinder, choose its fee system, which permits for installment plans, financial institution transfers and different options not supplied by Google, in keeping with the lawsuit.

Google mentioned that builders can bypass the Play retailer and that it has lowered charges and created different packages to deal with considerations.

Dubey mentioned that going round Play was unviable.

“It’s like saying, ‘you don’t have to take the elevator to get to the 60th floor of a building, you can always scale the outside wall,'” she mentioned.

© Thomson Reuters 2022