The conflict between Epic Games and Google continues to develop. Fortnite developers have updated their lawsuit against the corporation, adding several new proofs of Google’s monopolistic behavior.
Epic Games gathered this evidence in a lawsuit that Washington and 36 American states filed against Google at the beginning of the month. They also accused the corporation of anti-competitive behavior.
A clause appeared in the lawsuit that talks about Google’s pressure on Samsung Electronics. Allegedly, Google paid a South Korean company not to launch its own Samsung Galaxy Store app store. It was in it that Epic Games was originally going to release the Android version of Fortnite, but Google’s intervention did not allow it to be done.
Separately, Epic Games indicated that Google maintains a close relationship with its competitor Apple. For example, it gives away a significant part of its income so that the Google search engine works on iOS devices by default. According to the calculations, in recent years, the corporation has given Apple a total of $ 8-12 million. But instead, the Google search engine turned out to be installed “on almost all mobile devices.”
As Epic Games noted, such actions reduce Google’s motivation to compete and develop.
Recall that the proceedings between the companies began last August. The reason was that Google removed the Fortnite battle royale from Google Play after it became possible to pay for content directly to developers bypassing the store commission. Shortly before that, Epic Games filed a similar lawsuit against Apple, which removed the game from the App Store for the same reason.
It is unknown when the trial of Epic Games and Google will take place. The trial with Apple took place in May 2021, but the court has not yet made a decision.