The future of Google’s app store is at a crucial point ever since the gaming giant Fornite has published a legal suit against it. The legal suit was filed by the Fortnite game’s publisher in 2020 after they got into a fight over the app purchase fees, which is there on Playstore. The lawsuit claimed that the Android operating system’s Google Play has constituted an unlawful monopoly, making it a crucial tussle between the two mavericks. In this article, we will be talking in detail about the Epic v. Google feud, which I am pretty sure you didn’t see it coming.
What’s the Matter?
If you are unaware of Epic v. Google, then let me tell you that Epic v. Google is a lawsuit that was filed against Google in August 2020 in the Northern District of California. The lawsuit was filed concurrently with Epic v. Apple. Epic has primarily challenged Google’s monopoly on Android devices in the Google Play store. This feud led to a trial in the year 2023 where the judge ruled that Google had violated the anti-trust laws when it came to maintaining the Play Store as the dominant storefront with Android, which also included making deals to publish apps only on Playstore. It also requires Play Store to download third-party devices
Now that you have gotten a good insight into the Epic v. Google lawsuit and the ruling, Head to the next section to look at this controversy from its origin
Where did it All Start?
This controversy started in the year 2020 when the Fortnite publishers filed a lawsuit against Google. Google operates the Google Play Store for Android devices and holds a 30% share of the revenue which are made through sales on Playstore. This also includes the in-app purchases. However, Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, has been quite outspoken about this 30% fee, believing that the storefronts will be reducing this while still being profitable.
A significant part of the reasoning also included that Epic would show that they could operate this storefront from a 12% revenue share.
Epic released the Fortnite Battle Royale for computers and consoles in 2017, and its mobile version was bought in 2018. Initially, the game was launched under a free-to-play title, while the mobile version was released through sideloading in order to avoid giving Google any revenue from in-game sales. However, many clones had appeared on the Play Store claiming to be the real Fortnite; in lieu of this, the game discontinued the sideloaded version in favor of a legitimate Google Play version in the year 2020.
Project Liberty
In August 2020, Epic founder Tim Sweeney developed a project under Epic named ‘Project Liberty’. Its plan was to challenge the 30% revenue fees on Google’s and Apple’s stores. Both the android as well as iOS versions of Fortnite were updated with code for allowing the players to buy V bucks directly from Epic. However, this practice has violated the allowable terms for the apps for both Google Play Store and App Store. This led Fortnite to be removed from these storefronts on the same day.
This led Epic to file lawsuits against Apple and Google in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, asserting their storefronts engaged in anti-competitive behavior.
The Verdict
In the verdict by the jury on December 11, 2023, the ruling came in favor of Epic and found that Google had turned its Google Play app store and Google Play billing service into an illegal monopoly, which has led them to proven practicing monopolies in the Play Store. This anticompetitive and monopolistic behavior led to the defeat of Google.
Why Epic Won?
If you are wondering about this question, then here’s an attempt to answer it. Apple had previously won in a similar trial in the year 2021 which had beaten the claims that it had violated the antitrust laws by charging mandatory in-app transaction fees and had kicked Epic’s game Fortnite off the App Store. Google tried a similar move but significantly failed as the jury found an unlawful monopoly with Playstore.
Conclusion
However, the feud between Epic and Google is something that you cannot expect to go through in a non-disputed flow. But the trials to come will definitely give a clearer verdict that will give the fans of the game as well as the app storefront relief. That’s all, folks. I hope the article will help you to get all the information you need.
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