Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai
Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite, won a key US court battle against Google on Monday when a jury determined that the search engine giant has an illegal monopoly over its Android app store.
Epic sued Google and Apple in 2020, alleging the tech titans of abusing control of their respective stores, which sold apps and other digital content for mobile devices powered by iOS or Android software.
Google and Apple take a share of all financial transactions in their app stores, prompting developers to protest about what they call an unjust tax imposed by the companies.
The jury decided against Google in just a few hours, ruling that the corporation has engaged in a variety of illegal strategies to maintain its app store monopoly on Android phones.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney tweeted, “Victory over Google! After four weeks of detailed court testimony, the California jury found against the Google Play monopoly on all counts”, through his official ‘X’ handle.
The matter is now returned to the judge, who will decide how to address the jury’s findings of harm.
Google stated that it would appeal the ruling and that the litigation might continue for months or years.
Wilson White, Google’s vice president for government affairs & public policy, stated, “We will continue to defend the Android business model and remain deeply committed to our users, partners, and the broader Android ecosystem”.
Phones using the Android operating system account for over 70 percent of the global smartphone market.
During the trial, it became clear that Google worked hard to ensure that the Google Play app store was the only way to pay for third-party apps like Fortnite and other games.
video games account for a significant portion of app store revenue, and Epic Games has long tried to have payments for its mobile games take place outside the Google or Apple app stores, which take a large commission.
Epic had essentially lost a similar case against Apple, in which a US judge mostly sided with the iPhone maker.
Apple and Google frequently maintain that their app store commissions are industry-standard and that they cover costs such as reach, transaction security, and malware detection.
Google is also defending itself in federal court in Washington, where Justice Department officials accuse the company of breaking the law to maintain its search engine’s dominance.
The department’s case is based on Google’s massive revenue-sharing deals, in which iPhone maker Apple receives a large percentage of Google ad revenue generated by being the default search engine on Apple devices.
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