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Google loses in court against Epic Games

12.12.2023

Translation: machine translated

Because Google deducts a fee for in-app purchases in "Fortnite", the developer studio Epic Games has sued the US company - and won.

Epic Games has won a lawsuit against Google. The developer studio of "Fortnite" accused the search engine giant of monopolising its app store and abusing its market power. Google had removed "Fortnite" from its Play Store after Epic demonstratively circumvented the fee for in-app purchases. This normally amounts to 30 per cent of the price.

Three years later, the jury of a US court ruled in favour of Epic. In its verdict, it unanimously concluded that Google had violated antitrust law with its behaviour. The company had a monopoly position in the Android app market and had abused this with in-app purchases.

The jury answered the question of whether Google had created a relevant market under antitrust law in the affirmative.
Source: United States District Court, Northern District of California

While the judgement has been passed, the sentence is still pending. Judge James Donato will hold hearings in the coming months. He will then decide on the consequences. Epic is not demanding any direct financial compensation. However, app developers will be allowed to set up their own app stores and payment systems in future. Epic Games is pleased with the outcome of the trial. "It proves that Google's app store practices are illegal," the company writes in a blog post.

Google takes the judgement further

Google intends to appeal the judgement, according to Vice President Wilson White: "We will continue to defend the Android business model and stand up for our users, partners and the entire Android ecosystem."

In Google's view, the Play Store is in direct competition with other app stores on Andoid smartphones and game consoles, as well as with Apple's App Store.

Through numerous witness statements during the legal dispute and internal documents, various details about Google's business practices came to light. These included how other companies were persuaded with high payments not to develop their own app stores. Find out more in episode 177 of our Tech Affair podcast.

News + Trends
A Tech Affair episode 177: Stolen tax data, Epic vs. Google, "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters", "Super Mario RPG"
by Philipp Rüegg

Epic's victory against Google contrasts with the outcome of a similar case against Apple two years ago. At that time, a Californian court ruled that Apple was not unfairly influencing the market with its tax on in-app purchases. In contrast to the trial against Google, a judge and not a jury decided the question of guilt in this case.

Cover image: Shutterstock

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Samuel Buchmann

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