Google’s Monopoly Power Challenged by Epic Games Lawsuit
Google has been fighting the Justice Department in court in Washington for two months over allegations that the firm is abusing its dominating position in online search and advertising to destroy competitors, a high-stakes antitrust dispute that could transform the world’s most popular search engine. It is now facing a new legal battle closer to home.
Epic Games, the developer of the hit game Fortnite, will appear in federal court in San Francisco on Monday to begin a month-long trial in its own antitrust complaint against Google. Epic is likely to contend that Google is infringing on both state and federal antitrust laws — as well as its core philosophy, Don’t be evil — by holding monopolistic influence over app developers on its Google Play Store for Android mobile phones.
Google has relegated its motto to nearly an afterthought, and is using its size to do evil upon competitors, innovators, customers, and users in a slew of markets it has grown to monopolize, Epic claimed in its 2020 complaint. The video game developer attempted to avoid Play Store costs by allowing Fortnite gamers to pay Epic directly for in-app purchases, which prompted Google to remove the game from the store.
If Epic prevails, Google may be compelled to relax its stringent Play Store policies, allowing other businesses to offer alternative app stores and making it simpler for developers to dodge the cut it takes on in-app sales. Google typically charges a 15% fee for app subscription fees and a 30% fee for purchases made within apps purchased from the store. (According to the business, 99 percent of developers are eligible for a 15 percent or lower fee on in-app purchases. Larger app developers, such as Epic, must pay 30%.)
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