SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

Google will face an 11-week UK trial over a class action by app developers worth more than £1 billion. The claim is being brought on behalf of thousands of developers represented by Professor Barry Rodger.

The case centres on commissions charged through the Google Play Store on app sales, subscriptions and in-app digital content. It covers UK-domiciled third-party app developers that sold through Google Play from August 2018 and paid commission to Google on those transactions.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal has rejected Google’s attempt to require some larger developers to join the case on an opt-in basis. The proceedings will therefore continue as an opt-out collective action, with eligible developers included unless they choose to remove themselves from the class.

Rodger, a competition law academic at Strathclyde University Law School, is acting as class representative. He alleges that Google abused a dominant position in Android app distribution by using technical and contractual restrictions to limit competition, making Google Play the main route to market for developers seeking Android users in the UK.

The claim also alleges that Google charged excessive and unfair commissions of as much as 30% on app sales and related digital transactions. It seeks compensation for revenue developers say they lost as a result.

Google denies the allegations.

Commission dispute

The trial will focus on the commercial terms under which developers distributed apps and sold digital content on Android devices through Google Play. The claimant argues that in a more competitive market, developers would have paid less to distribute apps and process digital sales, allowing them to retain a greater share of revenue.

That argument goes to the economics of app businesses, particularly smaller companies that rely on mobile platforms to reach customers. For those businesses, app store commissions can affect margins, hiring plans and investment in new products.

The proceedings also add to wider scrutiny of app store operators and their control over app distribution and payments. In recent years, regulators and courts in several jurisdictions have examined whether rules imposed by major platform owners restrict rival app stores or alternative payment methods.

In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority has designated Google as having strategic market status in relation to its mobile platform, including Android and native app distribution. In the European Union, the European Commission has issued preliminary findings under the Digital Markets Act concerning Google Play, including restrictions on steering users to alternative channels.

Courts in the United States and Australia have also considered Google’s conduct in Android app distribution and in-app payments. Google’s dispute with Epic Games in the US ended in a settlement under which it agreed to lower Play Store commissions for developers in future, though the settlement did not include compensation for earlier charges.

Trial focus

The UK case is likely to test both the structure of Android app distribution and the level of commissions charged through Google Play. It will examine whether developers had practical alternatives for reaching Android users and whether Google’s terms reflected competition or market power.

The Tribunal’s refusal to alter the class structure shortly before trial is also significant to the conduct of the case. Had the application succeeded, some larger developers would have had to identify themselves publicly and take active steps to join the claim or lose the chance to be part of any damages award.

Instead, the class remains in the form originally approved by the Tribunal, preserving the collective action as a broad claim on behalf of UK developers that fall within the class definition.

The case is one of the larger technology competition actions heading to court in the UK and reflects growing use of collective proceedings in disputes involving digital platforms. It also highlights continuing efforts by claimants to recover damages for what they describe as inflated costs imposed by powerful technology intermediaries.

Rodger said the case was aimed in part at smaller businesses with limited scope to avoid the Play Store if they wanted to reach Android customers.

“This is a significant moment for UK app developers. Many small businesses have had little realistic choice but to use Google Play Store to reach Android customers. The cost of doing so, we believe, was excessive and unfair,” said Professor Barry Rodger, class representative.

He added: “A landmark trial against Google is right around the corner.”

Rodger also said: “Any UK app developers who think they are affected should get in touch confidentially at www.googleplaystoredeveloperclaim.com/register. It takes minutes and it costs nothing.”

SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

Floward has deployed Infobip’s AgentOS to manage spikes in customer service demand, with the system handling peak WhatsApp volumes during major seasonal surges.

The online flower and gifting company said the setup enabled it to cope with conversation volumes up to 13 times higher on peak days, including Valentine’s Day, when it handled more than 54,000 daily conversations. It introduced a group of specialised AI agents to replace rule-based chatbots and route more complex cases to human staff when needed.

The move addresses a persistent operational challenge. As a same-day delivery company serving customers in the UK and the Middle East, Floward faces sharp increases in demand around occasions such as Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Ramadan, when queries about orders, delivery addresses and changes can rise quickly.

Under the new arrangement, customer conversations are routed to different AI agents depending on the task, including address collection, frequently asked questions and order changes, while live agents remain available for escalation. The service runs through WhatsApp, where recipients can provide address details and ask related questions in the same chat.

Floward said the deployment was designed, tested and launched in less than two months. It reported a 15% reduction in customer service costs and a 12 percentage point increase in customer satisfaction after introducing the AI-based system.

It also said it maintained one-minute response times and achieved 95% service level agreement performance during its busiest periods. AI containment rates also improved from the previous year, indicating that a larger share of customer interactions were resolved without being passed to human agents.

Seasonal pressure

Retailers and delivery businesses have been experimenting with generative AI and automated customer service tools to absorb temporary peaks in demand without increasing staffing at the same rate. The challenge has been particularly acute for businesses tied to seasonal events, where traffic can surge for short periods while customer expectations for speed and order accuracy remain high.

Floward said the project was intended to show that customer service scale no longer had to depend on proportional increases in headcount. It worked with Infobip to redesign customer journeys so more steps in the support process could be handled within a single messaging conversation.

“One of the biggest achievements of this transformation was proving that scaling customer service no longer means scaling headcount at the same rate,” said Lujain Mallosh, Customer Care Senior Manager at Floward.

“By combining AI agents, WhatsApp journeys and customer data on a single platform, we significantly improved efficiency and automation while maintaining high service standards during our busiest periods. As a result, we reduced customer service costs by 15%, handled 54,000 conversations on Valentine’s Day alone, improved AI containment rates year over year, and consistently achieved one-minute response times with 95% SLA performance. This approach also helped us increase CSAT by 12 percentage points, even during extreme peak demand,” Mallosh said.

Broader use

Beyond customer support, Floward is extending the same system to other customer interactions tied to sales. One example is an e-invitations feature that uses the platform for approval workflows, recipient notifications and gift prompts.

This points to a wider shift in how online retailers use messaging systems. What began as a customer support channel is increasingly being tied to order management, fulfilment and follow-on commercial activity within a single conversation thread.

Infobip, which provides cloud communications software, said Floward’s use case reflected the type of workload for which multi-agent AI systems are most useful: high-volume, repetitive requests with clear handover points to human staff. It argued that the main benefit came from reducing fragmentation in customer journeys rather than simply automating single tasks.

“Floward’s peak-season challenges are a textbook example of where agentic AI delivers the most value,” said Emir Kalem, Head of Customer Success EMEA at Infobip.

“By orchestrating AI agents, WhatsApp Flows and live agent escalation on a single platform, we helped Floward turn fragmented customer journeys into a seamless experience that handles extreme volume spikes while improving end-user service quality and delivery performance,” Kalem said.

The pellets are being used to care for the school’s White Pekin ducks.

For several months, the ducks have been benefiting from the pellets thanks to a donation from Land Energy, a nationwide biomass manufacturer and distributor.

St Peters school pupils feeding the ducks (Image: St Peter’s CE Primary School)

Emily Lemaire, school administrator, said: “We rallied the community and quickly raised more than £1,000 to buy and build a new duck run for our Forest School area.

“Nearly half of the school is now involved in helping to care for our chickens and ducks, with volunteer ‘duck leaders’ taking part in a day-to-day care rota.

“It can be quite costly to look after the ducks, which is why we were so grateful to Land Energy for donating some of their Sorbeo horse bedding pellets for us to try. The pellets have been fantastic, helping to keep the ducks’ sleeping areas clean, dry and comfortable.”

The ducks in the forest school area (Image: St Peter’s CE Primary School)

The project has engaged a large part of the school community, with many pupils helping care for the animals.

David Bone, communications officer at Land Energy, said: “We are always keen to support schools and community groups that help strengthen our relationship with the natural world, while contributing to our goal of creating real environmental gain and encouraging wider community engagement.

“We are very proud to support St Peter’s CE Primary School and its now three ducks with our Sorbeo horse bedding pellets in what we believe is an unconventional first.”