According to news on November 6, Google has been fighting in court in Washington for two months with the U.S. Department of Justice, which accused the company of abusing its dominance in online search and advertising to suppress competitors. The high-profile antitrust case could reshape the world’s most popular search engine. Now, Google faces another legal battle closer to home.
On Monday the United States, Epic Games, the developer of the popular game “Fortnite”, will appear in San Francisco federal court to begin a month-long antitrust lawsuit against Google. Epic Games is expected to accuse Google of violating state and federal antitrust laws, as well as its founding principle of “don’t be evil” by asserting its monopoly over app developers in the Google Play Store on Android phones.
“Google has reduced its motto to almost an afterthought and is using its scale to dominate competitors in a range of markets it already has a monopoly on,” Epic Games wrote in its lawsuit, first filed in 2020. Innovators, customers and users do bad things.” The video game developer had tried to bypass commissions charged by the Google Play Store by having Fortnite players pay Epic Games directly for in-app items, prompting Google Banned the game from its app store.
If Epic Games prevails, Google may be forced to change its app store rules to allow other companies to offer competing app stores, making it easier for developers to avoid Google’s cut of in-app purchases. Google typically charges users a 15% app subscription fee and a 30% commission on apps downloaded from the App Store. Google has previously argued that 99% of developers qualify for in-app purchase rates of 15% or less, while large app developers like Epic Games must pay 30%.
The antitrust lawsuit highlights that the company is defending itself on multiple fronts as regulators and rivals try to reduce Google’s influence on the Internet.
Part of a broader effort by tech regulators in recent years to curb the growing power of tech giants, the lawsuits could distract Google as it tries to focus on its battle with Microsoft, OpenAI and others in the field of generative artificial intelligence. Competition in emerging fields.
“It’s hard to imagine Google emerging from next year’s challenges unscathed,” said antitrust lawyer Paul Swanson of Holland & Hart. “At some point, being embroiled in so many cases, there’s always going to be one. Bad for you.”
Even so, Epic Games faces an uphill battle. The company made similar accusations against Apple during a 2021 court hearing. However, a federal judge rejected most of Epic Games’ request.
What’s different about this trial is that Epic Games thinks it has a chance of success. First, the case will be decided by a jury rather than a judge. Epic Games will also submit what it sees as conclusive evidence that Google forces phone makers like Samsung to pre-install and promote its apps on their devices. The company will argue that Google’s project, called Project Hug, bribed some developers to keep using Google’s payment system. Epic Games is also facing a countersuit from Google, which is seeking damages.
Swanson said a jury trial could be favorable to Epic Games. “The stakes for Google are much greater because they are dealing with a group of ordinary people evaluating their actions, rather than judges who are evaluating their actions through a century of antitrust precedent,” he explained.
Over time, antitrust accusations against the Google Play Store have been reduced to a one-on-one confrontation between Google and Epic Games. Dozens of state attorneys general sued Google in 2021 on similar grounds, and the company reached preliminary settlements with those states in September. On Tuesday, Google also announced a settlement with dating app company Match Group. Match Group has also previously joined Epic Games in its lawsuit.
Wilson White, Google’s vice president of public policy, said in a press release: “Epic Games wants to get all the benefits that Android and the Google Play Store offer without having to pay. This lawsuit will upend a A business model that lowers prices and increases choice.”
In 2020, Epic Games angered Google and Apple by encouraging its customers to shun the tech giant and pay the company directly for items purchased in the hit game Fortnite. This was against both companies’ policies, so they removed Fortnite from the app stores.
Epic Games responded with a lawsuit and a public relations blitz against Apple. Fortnite is still available on Android phones because Google allows a practice called sideloading, which is downloading apps from the internet outside of a phone’s app store.
Epic Games may argue that Google is making life difficult for Android phone users and app developers in various ways. Downloading is a painstaking process that most phone users struggle with, meaning Google can maintain de facto control over the apps on their phones through App Store restrictions. Samsung also offers an app store on its Android devices.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney are both expected to testify.
Last week, Pichai testified in the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Google. The Justice Department and attorneys general from dozens of states have accused Google of undermining competition by paying Apple, Samsung and other partners billions of dollars a year to make its search engine the default option in the companies’ web browsers.
Google argued that it got the default spot because it had a better product and its competitors didn’t invest in search capabilities.
In addition to Pichai’s appearance, the case also includes testimony from Google employees and rival executives, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The case could be decided in 2024.
A federal judge in Virginia is considering a separate Justice Department lawsuit accusing Google of illegally abusing its monopoly power over online advertising technology. A trial in the case could begin as early as next year.
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