In Epic Games’ last leg case against the tech giants, the Fortnite dThe developer is suing Google, this time in Australia.
The full suitcase that Epic filed in federal courts of Australia earlier this week Google has a “near monopoly” of app distribution and payments in the Android market by imposing a variety of “contractual and technical” restrictions on the developers it works with. All in all, says Epic, these hoops that Google has to jump through from its partners are a blatant violation of Australian Competition Laws.
“Google creates the illusion of being open-minded by arguing about the presence of alternative app stores on its platform or by allowing the direct download of apps from third-party providers,” Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said in a statement“In reality, these situations are so rare that they barely make a dent in the Android operating system monopoly.”
He is right about Australia. Android controls slightly less than half of the market share for the about 20 million smartphones in the entire country. And as Epic points out in its statement, about 90% of the apps on those phones are obtained from the Google Play Store, per marketing research that the Australian authorities had previously expelled.
What’s happening in Australia is the latest on Epic’s continuous crusade against two of the biggest honchos in the mobile business space: Apple and Google. B.ack in August, Epic introduced a direct payment system Fortnite that is explicitly designed to bypass the 30% discount that Apple or Google takes on subscriptions and in-game purchases made through Apple’s App Store or the Google Play Store. Pretty soon after It was rumored that Epic tried them cuts to cash, both companies blocked Fortnite from their respective stores.
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At the time Epic (rightly so) pointed out that being forced into this kind of pay-for-play system is more than a little unfair. If neither operator yielded, the lawsuits began. In August, Epic filed suit against Apple and Google in California courts, accusing both of anti-competitive behavior. A few months later, Epic filed suit against Apple’s Australian headquarters on similar grounds to the current Google case. It then filed additional charges against Apple and Google in Europe last month