A lawsuit filed in 2019 by Niantic Inc has reached a settlement, with hacking group Global++ agreeing to pay out $5 million to the Pokemon Go developer. As reported by Polygon, the rogue developers created and sold hacked versions of Pokémon Go, Ingress, and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite that gave players the ability to spoof their GPS locations and use features like "auto-walk."

After ignoring a number of cease and desist letters, Global++ had a lawsuit filed against it in mid-2019, after which a number of its social media and online presences went dark. In the original filing, Niantic alleged that the hacker group had made millions by selling "hundreds of thousands of subscriptions" to apps based on Niantic's original code.

In the settlement details, Global++ was found to have accessed and used Niantic's map data, and profited from the process by selling access to its programs through a subscription model. The defendants admitted to a number of breaches of federal law, including copyright infringement and violations of California's Computer Data Access and Fraud Act.