Loading player
Today in San Francisco, in the United States, an important trial begins involving Google and Epic Games, the video game manufacturer best known for Fortnite, long one of the most successful titles on iPhones (Apple) and Android smartphones (Google). Epic accuses Google of having violated US laws on free competition, effectively exercising a monopoly in the sector of distribution of applications on smartphones and the payments that can be made within them. Epic had previously sued Apple on similar grounds, but without getting what it asked for in court. The new process could have important consequences for Apple and Google, which with their online stores (App Store and Google Play) control a large part of what can be installed on smartphones, even if according to various experts Epic risks losing again.
Who downloads Fortnite can play for free, but also has the possibility of purchasing virtual items and other services to use in games through a sort of internal currency (V-bucks), which can be obtained by making a payment with real currency, through a credit card. Until the summer of 2020, if the video game was downloaded from the App Store or Google Play, the payment involved a commission that was retained by Apple or Google as managers of the transaction. About three years ago Epic decided that that commission, which often ran as high as 30 percent, wasn’t fair and developed a way around it. Apple and Google didn’t take it well and eliminated it Fortnite from their application stores. Epic was ready for this eventuality and shortly thereafter sued both companies, deeming the commission system that is applied in general to apps that allow you to make purchases unfair.
The lawsuit against Apple proceeded with relative speed and in 2021 a judge ruled that the iPhone manufacturing company did not have a monopoly, because the existence of Fortnite it does not depend solely on the App Store, but on the activities of a larger sector linked to video games and online transactions. He also ruled that Epic had breached its contract with Apple to access the App Store and should therefore pay damages. The appeal process didn’t change the ruling much and now both companies are awaiting a ruling from the Supreme Court.
The accusations made by Epic against Google are similar to those made against Apple, even if things work differently on Android than on iPhones. While on iPhones there is only one way to download applications – that is the App Store – technically on Android it is possible to use stores other than Google Play. On several occasions, also linked to other antitrust cases, Google has argued that this diversity makes its operating system much more open and far from monopolistic logic compared to Apple’s, because theoretically you can download and purchase applications without using Google Play. Epic instead claims that Google makes it practically impossible for application developers to do without Google Play, both in terms of the possibility of accessing services offered by Google to make their apps work and in terms of managing payments for extras to be purchased inside them.
To win the case, Epic will have to demonstrate that Google has a monopoly on both the distribution of apps on Android and the management of payments within them and that this prevents those who produce the applications from having alternatives. Google will probably respond to these accusations by reminding that the competition is mainly with Apple, given that people are free not to buy an Android smartphone and can instead buy an iPhone, if they believe that the rules applied by Google are not fair.
According to experts, if during the trial it is decided that Epic’s accusations must be analyzed in a general context of smartphones and applications, therefore not exclusively in the Android ecosystem, then Google will be able to prevail given that in that context there are alternatives offered by Apple. However, if the trial leads to an evaluation of Epic’s accusations in the Android ecosystem onlythen the video game manufacturer will have some more chances to prevail, albeit with great difficulty.
The shared opinion is that Epic starts at a disadvantage also due to how things have gone so far with Apple. However, there is a significant difference: in the trial against Apple the decision was up to a judge, while in the trial against Google the parties will have to face a jury which will then have to express its verdict. This introduces some additional elements of uncertainty, considering that in free competition cases, juries are often inclined to side with the “weaker” party.
In recent days, Epic has lost the support of Match, the company that manages some of the most famous dating apps such as Tinder and OkCupid, which had always accused Google of managing transactions within the applications. Match privately settled the dispute with Google, as did the attorneys general of 50 states that had sued the company (the terms of the settlement have not yet been made public). Epic then goes through the process on their own.
2023-11-06 18:26:51
#Epic #Games #trial #Google #begins
