• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, February 24, 2025

Google has defeated an antitrust lawsuit by Unlockd Media, a now-bankrupt Australian ad company that served full-screen mobile ads to Android users when they unlocked their phones.

Unlockd, which operated ad-serving apps including Boost Dealz, claimed that Google wrongly excluded those apps from the Play Store, and denied them access to the AdMob platform.

In an 11-page ruling issued late last week, U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam, Jr. in the Northern District of California said Unlockd's allegations were not detailed enough to warrant further proceedings.

“In short, plaintiff still offers nothing more than its repeated assertion that it was an innovative business and would have been a threat to Google in the digital advertising market absent Google’s alleged conduct,” Gilliam wrote. “Such unsupported conclusions are simply insufficient to allege antitrust injury.”

The ruling comes in a dispute dating to 2021, when Unlockd sued Google for allegedly denying the ad-serving apps access to the Play Store and AdMob.

Unlockd, which began distributing apps in the U.S. in 2015, served full-screen mobile ads to opted-in mobile users when they unlocked their devices, and gave those users virtual points that could be redeemed for rewards -- including, according to Unlockd “mobile credit, subsidized streaming services, additional loyalty points, or in-app benefits like extra lives in mobile games.”

Google allegedly informed Unlockd in 2017 that it was violating Android policies that required ads to be shown in app environments, and prohibited apps from offering users incentives to view ads.

In 2017, Google disabled Unlockd's access to the AdMob platform, and in 2018, Google ousted Unlockd from the Play Store -- moves that drove Unlockd into bankruptcy. Before AdMob excluded Unlockd, it had forged deals with other businesses including Sprint and MTV, and planned an initial public offering on the Australian stock exchange, according to the complaint.

Unlock claimed that Google took action for anticompetitive reasons.

“Unlockd’s hyper-targeted advertising capability was a direct challenge to Google’s digital advertising business,” the company alleged in a 2023 amended complaint. “Unlockd’s business model also challenged Google’s digital advertising business because Unlockd relied on an opt-in model and compensated users for their attention, whereas Google relies on an opt-out model and does not pay users for agreeing to view ads or giving their personal data to Google.”

Google urged Gilliam to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the company's allegations didn't support a conclusion that Google violated antitrust laws.

“Google notified Unlockd that its action was firmly rooted in its enforcement of its terms of use,” the company wrote in a motion seeking dismissal. “At bottom, Google sought to protect the experience of advertisers and users on AdMob and the Play Store. This is the very definition of a valid business justification.”

Gilliam's dismissal order was issued with prejudice, meaning Unlocked can't revise its allegations and bring them again.