Epic Games sues Google in Australia over alleged anticompetitive behavior
Epic Games Ltd. has taken its ongoing battle over commissions charged in app stores to Australia, filing a lawsuit claiming that Google LLC is abusing its control over Android.
The lawsuit, filed in the Federal Court of Australia and made public today, claims that Google is partaking in anticompetitive behaviors concerning the way apps are sold via the Google Play Store. According to Bloomberg, the company claims that Google has contravened Australian consumer and competition law by forcing developers to use its payment systems and also making it “egregiously difficult” for consumers to download apps outside of the Play Store.
Epic Games has previously filed lawsuits targeting both Apple Inc. and Google in the U.S., Europe and the U.K. The dispute started when Epic Games had its highly popular “Fortnite” game banned from both the Apple App Store and Google Play. That’s because it allowed players to purchase items directly from Epic Games at a discounted price rather than making those purchases through Apple and Google, which each take a 30% but of all transactions.
Although the claim that both Apple and Google are unfairly blocking competition by demanding a cut of app purchases is not new, this new lawsuit from Epic Games enters new territory in also claiming that Google is being anticompetitive in the installation of apps.
“Google advertises Android as an open platform and Android devices support installation of third-party software such as ‘Fortnite’ and the Epic Games App from the web,” Eipc Hames said in a statement. “However, Google obstructs software installation and updates with scary warning screens that place third-party software sources at a disadvantage to Google Play.”
If you’re a 12-year-old child who thinks Richard “Ninja” Tyler Bevens, one of the most famous “Fortnite” streamers, is the most famous person in the world, you might think that a popup in Android when installing a third-party app is “scary.” If you’re not 12, it’s not scary.
If a short disclosure popup in Android is somehow “scary” when installing an unknown third-party app, the terms and conditions to install “Fortnite” must be the scariest thing on the face of the Earth. If more than 350 million people have installed “Fortnite” and not been scared out of their wits by the Epic Games’ terms and conditions, surely a short warning from Google in Android can’t be that scary.
Image: Fortnite
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