Epic v. Google: Tech giant loses antitrust lawsuit

On Monday, a jury sided with Fortnite-maker Epic Games, which had sued Google in an antitrust lawsuit, alleging its app store amounts to an illegal monopoly.

The jury’s decision marks a historic victory, and could usher in future scrutiny for other tech giants, particularly with respect to payments and pricing.

“Today’s verdict is a win for all app developers and consumers around the world,” Epic Games wrote in a company blog post. “It proves that Google’s app store practices are illegal and they abuse their monopoly to extract exorbitant fees, stifle competition and reduce innovation.”

The jury answered affirmatively to every question presented to them. And that included some hefty allegations against Google, including whether it wields a monopoly in Android app distribution and whether it “broke competition laws in how it ran its app store,” the Washington Post reported.

Epic Games has been waging a multiyear legal battle against Google and Apple. Three years ago, the company sued the two tech behemoths claiming their app stores were illegal monopolies.

Previously, Epic had debuted a feature that allowed Fortnite users to pay Epic directly for in-app purchases. Apple and Google kicked Fortnite from their app stores, claiming the move violated their rules, and Epic sued.

Before the latest Google decision, Epic was mostly losing. In April, a federal appeals court judge backed up a lower court decision from 2021 that held that Apple’s app store didn’t violate federal antitrust laws.

In the case of Epic v. Google, the presiding judge, James Donato, will determine how Google needs to update its practices to abide by the law. Notably, Epic didn’t sue for monetary damages, The Verge reported. Instead, the video game maker wants the court to grant developers the ability to create their own app stores and billing systems.

Google and Epic will meet with Donato in early January to talk about possible solutions.