Antitrust negotiations between Google and Epic Games have reportedly stalled.
The two sides cannot agree on what changes Google needs to make to the Play Store to resolve disagreements over the fees mobile app developers must pay, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday ( (February 28) Reported late.
Epic, the maker of the popular video game Fortnite, won a court victory in December when a jury found that Google used its dominant market position to stifle competition.
U.S. District Judge James Donato has reportedly asked both sides to work toward a settlement that would resolve Epic’s antitrust allegations, but the companies are at an “impasse” in a court filing Wednesday. Stated.
Bloomberg reported that a judge said last month that he would hold a hearing in March if Google and Epic could not resolve the issue. Donato also said he was seeking expert opinion from economists, the report said.
Epic Games sued Google in federal court in 2020, accusing the tech giant of monopolizing the Android app distribution market through backroom deals with rivals and using its resources to stifle competition.
Google claimed that the partnership is aimed at increasing the competitiveness of its Android-based phones against its main competitor, Apple’s iPhone.
The jury found that Google Play, through its parent company, held monopoly power and engaged in anticompetitive conduct.
As noted here at the time, the outcome of this case could have far-reaching implications for the Android app ecosystem, with some observers suggesting it could weaken app store regulation in general for both Google and Apple. It says that there is a sex.
“This is where the dominoes will start to fall,” says Epic CEO Tim Sweeney He spoke in an interview with Bloomberg after the verdict. “The end of the 30% is in sight.”
Meanwhile, Google is also facing other antitrust pressure as it battles with the U.S. Department of Justice, which accuses it of having a monopoly in online search.
The lawsuit alleges that Google has spent billions of dollars to ensure its search engine remains the default choice on smartphones, but Google counters that it competes fairly. Recently released court documents show that Google has presented Microsoft with an offer to work with Apple as evidence.
Google said Microsoft asked Apple to use its Bing search engine as the default search option in Apple’s Safari browser in 2009, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2020.
“In each case, Apple critically considered the relative quality of Bing and Google and concluded that Google was the superior default choice,” the court filing said. “That’s competition.”
