Unilever under investigation for greenwashing; Jury rules Google’s practices illegal in Epic lawsuit; TikTok is first non-game app to generate $10bn in consumer spending

by Aimee Newell Tarín on 13th Dec 2023 in News

On today’s ExchangeWire digest: Unilever under investigation for greenwashing; Jury rules Google’s practices illegal in Epic lawsuit; TikTok is first non-game app to generate $10bn in consumer spending…

The greenwashing accusations continue at full steam this week, with another big name coming under fire. Unilever, the maker of Dove, Marmite, and Vaseline, has come under the scrutiny of the UK’s competition watchdog – the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) – over concerns that the company is misleading consumers with ‘green’ claims about its products. The watchdog suggested that Unilever is overstating how green certain products are, through the use of vague and broad environmental claims, unclear statements around recyclability, as well as natural-looking images and logos. The CMA plans to investigate: “we’ll be drilling down into these claims to see if they measure up,” said Sarah Cardell, the CMA chief executive. “If we find they’re greenwashing, we’ll take action to make sure shoppers are protected.”

Over in the legal world, Epic looks set to secure a long-awaited win against Google in their juridical struggle. The jury’s verdict finds that Google turned its Google Play app store and Google Play Billing service into an illegal monopoly; the jury agreed that Google has monopoly power in the Android app distribution markets and in-app billing services markets, that the tech giant did anticompetitive things in those markets, and that Epic was injured by that behaviour. The tie between Google’s Play app store and its Play Billing payment was also deemed illegal. Epic has not won just yet, however.

While Google and Epic battle it out, TikTok is breaking records. The video app has become the first non-game up to generate USD $10bn (£7.9bn) in consumer spending across the Apple App Store and Google Play combined. This spending comes from TikTok’s in-app purchases of “coins”, which are a virtual currency users can spend on gifts for creators on the platform. The only other apps to have achieved such an enormous consumer spending are all games, such as Candy Crush Saga. As it currently stands, TikTok is poised to become the highest earning mobile app ever.