Google under fire from Italian antitrust regulator over freemium app sales model

Italy’s Antitrust and Competition Authority says it is investigating “freemium” apps offered in Google’s Play Store along with similar stores operated by Apple and Amazon, saying that customers could be misled by the “free” label, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

According to the regulatory group, users who download these apps for free could believe that the game is completely free and not know when downloading the app how much it will actually cost.

If Google is found to have misled customers, the company could be fined as much as €5 million. It’s not likely to put a big dent in Google’s cash reserve, but the Italian antitrust committee has previously convinced Apple to change its policy regarding AppleCare marketing, and could affect similar changes in this case at Google and the other companies.