Epic Games Wins Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 January 2024 / 2,779 Views
Epic Games has won its antitrust lawsuit against Google that could lead to major changes on Android devices in the coming years.
The lawsuit from Epic Games was filed in 2020 and claims Google created a monopoly with its Google Play Store on Android as more than 95 percent of Android apps were distributed through the store.
The main complaint from Epic is that Google takes a 30 percent revenue share from any app available on the Google Play Store and the requirement the apps have to use Google Play's own billing system. This meant developers couldn't make money without going through Google.
"Victory over Google!," said Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney. "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!"
The verdict from the jury states there is an antitrust market on Android devices and "Google willfully acquired or maintained monopoly power by engaging in anticompetitive conduct."
Epic proved "that it was injured by a result of Google's violation of antitrust laws" and that "Google entered into one or more agreements that unreasonably restrained trade."
The jury also found that "Google unlawfully tied the use of the Google Play Store to the use of Google Play Billing."
Epic and Google will meet with the Judge in January to discuss possible remedies, while Google does plan to appeal the decision.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Bizarre that they won this and not the Apple one
iOS market share is much smaller than Android, so that might make a difference to explain why Apple won the case but not Google.
I don't think that would make a great argument when it's still a billion devices or something, but who knows.
Is it appealable? silly question should have read the whole post.
ps. the closest stupid face emoji 😢 I could find beside uploading mine.
I think they already did though I'm not sure what the status on it currently is
different jury different agenda
Wow impressive. Giants sit too comfortably sometimes and it's nice to see them lose sometimes to make things more right.
Wow! I don't think anybody saw that one coming.
Wasn't this lawsuit identical to the Apple one? What changed?
Let's see what the remedies will be.
