Epic Games wins antitrust case against Google

The jury of the US District Court of the Northern District of California ruled in favor of Epic Games in the antitrust case against Google over the Play app store. Epic Games, a game studio, sued Google in 2020, accusing the company of stifling competition by making deals with smartphone makers to give the Play Store preferential placement on their devices in exchange for a share of revenues. 

The jury found that Google illegally linked its Play app store to its billing services, thus gaining illegal monopoly power in the Android app distribution market and billing services. Google declared it would appeal the decision, while the court will decide what remedies to implement in January 2024. South Korea and the EU have already implemented measures to enable alternative payment methods, increasing competition in the app-store economy.

Why does it matter?

This ruling is somewhat historic considering that Epic Games lost its case against Apple in September 2021 on the same matter, when Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that the case ‘had nothing to do with apps’. This ruling against Google’s app store may have implications for two other lawsuits brought against the company by the US Department of Justice, focusing on Google’s search engine and advertising business.

As mentioned by Reuters, if this ruling holds, it could set a precedent that would allow developers to have more control over the distribution of their apps and the profits they develop. This would change the entire economy of the Play Store, which is Google’s central hub for app distribution on billions of Android devices.