Epic Games has won the antitrust lawsuit against Google on all counts.
Epic sued Google for allegedly running an “illegal monopoly” through the Play Store back in 2020, when Fortnite was removed from both iOS and Android following the introduction of Epic’s direct payment system.
The California court jury have agreed that Google possesses monopoly power in the Android app distribution and in-app billing services markets, that Google did anticompetitive things in those markets, and that Epic was harmed by that behaviour. The jury decided Google maintains an illegal tie between the Play Store and its own billing payment services, and that Project Hug – which paid out large sums to keep game developers in the Play Store – was anticompetitive.
In an official blog update, Epic stated, “Today’s verdict is a win for all app developers and consumers around the world. It proves that Google’s app store practices are illegal and they abuse their monopoly to extract exorbitant fees, stifle competition and reduce innovation”.
After a disappointing outcome from Epic’s court battle with Apple, CEO Tim Sweeney happily announced the company’s victory against Google in a post on 𝕏, saying, “Victory over Google! After 4 weeks of detailed court testimony, the California jury found against the Google Play monopoly on all counts. The Court’s work on remedies will start in January. Thanks for everyone’s support and faith! Free Fortnite”.
Epic ended its official blog update with a thank-you message, which reads, “Thank you to the Court for hearing this important case and for the next steps determining the remedies that will right Google’s decades of anticompetitive conduct. And thank you to the jury for their historic decision. The one million game developers who couldn’t be here thank you”.
Source: The Verge
In other news, Epic Games has launched LEGO Fortnite. Click here to read more.
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