HIGHLIGHTS
- Epic Games had filed a lawsuit against Apple and Google over Play Store’s in-app billing policies.
- The lawsuit was filed against Apple for alleging forcing developers to process in-app purchases through Apple.
- A latest court filings reveal that to dissolve the threat, Google had even considered buying some or all of Epic.
Epic Games had filed a lawsuit against Apple and Google over Play Store’s in-app billing policies. The lawsuit was filed against Apple for alleging forcing developers to process in-app purchases through Apple and pay the company 30 per cent of the total revenue earned. A similar lawsuit was filed against Google by the Epic Games. However, the latest court filings reveal that to dissolve the threat, Google had even considered buying some or all of Epic.
Apple and Google were accused of maintaining monopolies and eliminating the competition. The battle between Apple, Google and Epic Games had intensified when both the tech companies removed Fortnite by Epic Games from App Store and Play Store after the developer had rolled out a new update that allowed users to pay directly to the developer for Fortnite’s in-app purchases. It was also alleged by Epic that Apple and Google had also attacked the company’s business in unrelated areas.
If Epic wins the court battle, Apple and Google would have to make changes in their App Store policies and it would cost them a fortune. A recent court filing uncovered that to eliminate the threat or risk of losing a lot of money in the court battle with Epic. Google even contemplated buying some or all of Epic.
“Google has gone so far as to share its monopoly profits with business partners to secure their agreement to fence out competition, has developed a series of internal projects to address the 'contagion' it perceived from efforts by Epic and others to offer consumers and developers competitive alternatives, and has even contemplated buying some or all of the Epic to squelch this threat,” the updated complaint obtained by The Verge read.
Epic had alleged in its complaint that Google uses its size, influence, power, and money to induce third parties “into anti-competitive agreements that further entrench its monopolies”.
Reacting to the reports of Google contemplating to buy Epic, Tim Sweeney tweeted, “This was unbeknownst to us at the time, and because of the court’s protective order we’re just finding out now about Google’s consideration of buying Epic to shut down our efforts to compete with Google Play. Whether this would have been a negotiation to buy Epic or some sort of hostile takeover attempt is unclear. Here Google also talks about the “frankly abysmal” sideloading experience they created, all while touting Android publicly as an “open platform”.
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