[xg15]

> Are they getting hurt? I guess not.

I absolutely disagree. In Google's case, their service have become an integral part to using the internet - and the internet has become an integral part of daily life. So such a block would absolutely have consequences.

> Note that locking them e.g. out of a phone they bought before the ban is something different - that would be a breach of contract from Google side.

Then it would as well be breach of contract to lock me out of the Play Store until I agreed to an updated ToS. Apparently this can still be done if the old ToS contains the right clauses. So I suspect the phone ban would work similarly.