Epic Games is suing Google, claiming the latter paid developers and prohibited them from building competitive app marketplaces
Apple and Epic Games are now engaged in a legal fight over the alleged anti-competitive behavior of Epic Games, the developer of the popular game Fortnite. The company is currently working on preparing a lawsuit against Google in which it will assert that the latter company corrupted developers by paying them off and discouraging them from building other software marketplaces.
The allegations focus on Google’s Project Hug, which was rebranded as the “Apps and Games Velocity initiative” in the aftermath of the scandal. In case you were unaware, it has been claimed that Google has spent millions of dollars to sustain the Play Store presence of some Android developers. In case you were uninformed, this information can be found here. Epic Games lodged the complaint in the previous calendar year.
According to Epic Games’ motion, “several of these arrangements were intended to, and did, prevent developers from opening competing app shops,” implying that Google had broken the United States’ primary antitrust law known as the Sherman Act. In a recent report published by Engadget, the company Google was quoted as saying that they would be opposing the motion. They also added that “Epic and Match are adding more erroneous claims to their failed case and we’re looking forward to setting the facts right in court.”
The Google spokesperson proceeded by stating that users of Android already have access to rival app stores and that the program that Epic Games is fighting against offers Android developers incentives and users early access to Google Play users whenever they launch new content. On the other hand, the United States Department of Justice and a group representing more than 36 states have already criticized Google for the prices it charges for its online stores.