In a major disappointment for Google, it lost the legal battle against Epic Games in the antitrust case. Whether this will mark the end of Google Android monopoly is yet to be seen.
Google is a big technology giant and it rules over the payments on mobile apps. However, this can change now with it losing the legal fight. It may face a financial loss amounting to billions of dollars.
Apart from Google, Epic had also filed a case against Apple. It accused both of maintaining an illegal dominance on the app store.
Legal Battle Of Google Android Monopoly
Epic is the producer of Fortnite and it filed an antitrust case against Google. According to it, Google is the only entity that has a monopoly on the Android and Play Store. And it is not legal.
James Donato is the United States judge who was dealing with this case. He is the District Judge overseeing the case in San Francisco.
The trial was going on in the court related to the Epic Games vs Google case. The legal battle continued for a long time for the past three years when the game maker first filed a case against Google. The trial continued for four weeks in California. It has reached its conclusion with Epic’s victory.
During the trial, Epic Games claimed that it suffered a loss owing to Google owning the entire Play Store by itself. The jury heard both parties and judged that Google has caused damage to Epic by exploiting its monopoly on Android. It is a setback for Google. Epic was successful in proving in court that Google followed a policy of monopoly and anti-competition on the app store on Android.
The Verdict On Google Android Monopoly
The court was convinced that Epic was right and Google was wrong. It agreed that Google had a monopoly on app stores on Android. It also agreed that Epic suffered a loss with this policy of Google. The jury was unanimous in its viewpoint that the agreement between Google and Play Store was not legal. Google also holds a monopoly over the payment of Google Play.
The court is yet to decide if Google should allow other entities to handle the apps and payments on Android’s app store.
It is to be noted that Epic has not made a claim to punish Google financially. The latter need not make any monetary compensation to Epic. Epic only wants Google Android monopoly to end and change the policies regarding the Play Store.
Google has stated that it will pursue the case in a higher court and challenge the judgement.
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