Epic Games‘ legal battle against Google continues. This week marked one of the most anticipated events in a highly significant trial for the tech industry: the testimony of Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic, in the federal court of San Francisco.
The conflict between Google and Epic Games dates back to the summer of 2020 when Epic requested Google to stop charging developers a 30% commission for in-app purchases. There was a significant reason behind this: it was one of Fortnite‘s peak moments, and the commissions took a substantial portion of all in-app purchases.
Google refused to waive this commission, prompting Epic to boldly install its own payment system within the Fortnite app, allowing users to bypass Google’s intermediary and purchase digital products at a lower price.
In response, Google removed Fortnite from the Play Store on August 13, 2020. Immediately after, Sweeney accused Google on the same day, alleging that the tech giant was exerting monopolistic control over mobile game developers on its Play Store.
“I want to make it clear to everyone exactly what was happening on these platforms,” said Sweeney in his testimony this Monday. “I want everyone to see and understand that Google exerts de facto control over the availability of apps on Android.”
One of the most curious details of this legal case is that Google has shown favoritism towards certain tech companies regarding the commission it charges on the Play Store. This is the case with Netflix, to which Google offered to charge only a 10% commission on in-app purchases to “keep them happy,” although ultimately unsuccessful. Spotify was also offered a much lower commission of 4%, and in this case, the streaming service did accept it.
