Fortnite maker Epic Games has prevailed in its high-profile antitrust lawsuit over Alphabet's Google, which claimed the Play app store was operating as an illegal monopoly, in a ruling that, if upheld, could upend the entire app store economy can put.
Jurors found Epic favorably on all counts, a lawsuit found, after more than a month of trial in Epic's lawsuit, which accused Google of taking action to destroy competitors and charging unnecessarily high fees of up to 30 percent to app developers. The court will begin examining in January what remedies should be implemented.
The ruling represents a stunning defeat for Google, which operates one of the largest app stores in the world alongside Apple. If the ruling stands, it has the potential to give developers more control over how their apps are distributed and how they benefit from them.
Google said it would appeal. “We will continue to defend the Android business model and remain deeply committed to our users, partners and the broader Android ecosystem,” said Wilson White, vice president of government affairs and public policy at Google, in an emailed statement.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney applauded the ruling on social media site X on Monday, calling it “the Google Play monopoly.”
Victory over Google! After four weeks of detailed testimony, the California jury ruled against the Google Play monopoly on all counts. The Court's work on remedies will start in January. Thank you for everyone's support and trust! Free Fortnite! https://t.co/ITm4YBHCus
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) December 12, 2023
Lawyers for the two companies made their final arguments Monday morning, and the federal judge handed the case over to the jury less than four hours earlier, with instructions that a decision must be unanimous.
One of Epic's allegations was that Google illegally connected its Play Store and billing service, meaning developers had to use both to get their apps included in the store.
Although the Play Store represents a much smaller share of Google's revenue compared to its hugely profitable search business, it is symbolically important as the central gatekeeper for billions of mobile phones and tablets.
Google may be forced to allow more app stores on Android devices and lose revenue from the cuts to in-app purchases.
“(Today's verdict) proves that Google's app store practices are illegal and abuse their monopoly to collect exorbitant fees, stifle competition, and reduce innovation,” Epic said in a statement on its website.
Google accused of deleting messages
“The trial has shined a very bright light on what Google has done to harm competition,” an attorney for Epic, Gary Bornstein, told jurors earlier in the day, adding that Google will include alternative app stores in the Play Store of the company “systematically blocks”.
One of the more sensational allegations was that Google had a system for deleting texts and internal messages aimed at concealing its anti-competitive behavior. An attorney for Epic told jurors Monday that they could assume the content of the deleted messages was relevant to the case and would have been “unfavorable to Google.”
Google has denied wrongdoing, saying it competes “intensely on price, quality and security” with Apple's App Store.
A lawyer for Google, Jonathan Kravis, told jurors that “Google does not want to lose 60 million Android users to Apple every year.” Google has lowered its pricing structure to compete with Apple, Kravis said.
“This is not the behavior of a monopolist,” he said.
Google settled related claims from dating app maker Match before the trial period began. The tech giant also settled related antitrust claims from US states and consumers under terms that were not made public.
Epic filed a similar antitrust lawsuit against Apple in 2020, but a US judge largely ruled in Apple's favor in September 2021.
Epic has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revive key claims in the Apple case, and Apple is fighting part of a ruling for Epic that would require changes to App Store rules.
Epic deliberately broke Play Store rules by bypassing its billing systems, allowing customers to make in-app purchases directly from Epic, a lawyer for the game maker said Monday. As a result, Google banned Fortnite and Epic filed suit in response.
© Thomson Reuters 2023