I use gerrit with Google Play Android Publisher Plugin the way it described in plugin tutorial on the plugin page. .apk is signed and if I upload it via google play gui it
The issue was when you uploaded your credential file to Google OAuth Plugin for Jenkins, the credential wasn't being uploaded correctly and there was no credential file for the Google Play Publisher to work correctly.
I have a same issue, but I solve with change the Google oAuth plugin (dependency for Google Play publish plugin) from v0.4 to v0.3.
You can downgrade by install manualy.
Download here: https://updates.jenkins-ci.org/download/plugins/google-oauth-plugin/ (this is a *.hpi file)
Manage Jenkins > Manage Plugins > Advanced > Upload plugin
It works for me.
It's 2018 and unfortunately the issue still exists. The solutions from János answer and Andy Answer are correct.
Let me write down the working solution step by step in case if someone already have the latest Google Play publish plugin installed.
Now the error from Google Play publish plugin should have gone.
Update: By following the mentioned procedure of downgrading the version numbers of certain plugins, you would loose the GIT section from you Jenkins Jobs. i.e: You would not be able to select the Git Branch for your Jenkins Job and the Polling to your Git Branch would stop.