Fortnite is suing Google for allegedly abusing its power and trying to create a monopoly in the Google Play Store. The game is accusing the tech giant of misusing its authority over in-app distribution and payments and violating several federal antitrust regulations in the process. Epic Games, which is the creator of Fortnite, is the one who has sued Google for trying to create an unlawful monopoly in the Play Store. They have further said that this has led to inflated consumer prices and has got their productivity and innovation level down in the market.
Fortnite initially sued Google years back in 2020
Gary Bornstein, the attorney of Epic Games presented data from 2020 stating that the Google Play Store dominated the installation of apps at 90 percent while Samsung’s app store had minimal engagement in most Android devices. They accused Google of providing financial incentives to its rivals to cut off any competition and create a monopoly by making the market anti-competitive. Fortnite was recently made available in the Oppo App Market for Android in select regions.
Google also imposes a 30 percent commission over in-app purchases in its Play Store which has led to over a profit of $12 billion annually with a huge profit margin of over seventy percent which is a pretty big increase from the twenty-four percent profit margin in 2014. Epic Games also points out this fact and bravely contests it.
One should keep in mind that Epic Games had a similar legal problem with Apple in 2021 which was following the dispute with Google in 2020. In both cases, Fortnite was removed from the app stores of both of the companies because Epic Games’ launched their own proprietary system. During their legal battle with Apple, the judge presiding over the case refused the idea of Apple operating as a monopoly in the market.
The ongoing legal battle further adds to problems for Google because of its ongoing antitrust issues. The company is defending itself in a Washington court where it has been accused by the US Department of Justice of unlawfully monopolizing the market and shutting down every competition.
OnePlus and Samsung faced restrictions on including Fortnite on the
Updated on November 14, 2023: As the battle continued, a few interesting details were revealed on the fifth day of the ongoing Epic v Google trial, where the court focused on the agreements between Google and phone manufacturers regarding the pre-installation of apps, as reported by The Verge.
It was revealed that popular phone manufacturer OnePlus had requested permission from Google to include Fortnite on its phones, but Google allegedly rejected the request. Google argued that OnePlus made a deliberate choice not to include Fortnite to ensure sustained long-term growth, pointing out that 95% of US Android phones can preload apps from non-Google sources.
The trial also delved into Samsung and Google’s relationship, where concerns about installing Fortnite on a Samsung Note 8 without proper warnings were indicated with Google expressing worries about security threats.
Epic Games did raise concerns in the ongoing trial, stating that non-Google Play apps, including popular ones like Fortnite, receive excessive “unknown sources” warnings when directly installed on Android devices. We’ll have to wait and see what will be the further updates, as on day 6, Google CEO Sundar Pichai will also appear on court.
For more Mobile Gaming news and updates, join our WhatsApp group, Telegram Group, or Discord server. Also, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Google News for quick updates.
