Epic win: A jury decided that Google has an illegal monopoly in the App Store battle

Three years later fortnite-Epic Games sued Apple and Google for allegedly running illegal App Store monopolies, and Epic won. Jury in Epic against Google It just issued its ruling — finding that Google has turned the Google Play App Store and Google Play Billing service into an illegal monopoly.

The jury unanimously answered yes to every question before them — that Google had monopoly power in the Android app distribution markets and in-app billing services markets, that Google did anticompetitive things in those markets, and that Epic was harmed by that conduct. They determined that Google had an illegal relationship between its Google Play app store and Google Play Billing payment services as well, and that its distribution agreement, Project Hug, which deals with game developers and deals with OEMs, was anticompetitive as well.

Mind you, we don’t know What Epic has He’s already won so far — it’s up to Judge James Donato, who will decide what remedies are appropriate. Epic has never sued for monetary damages; It wants the court to tell Google that each app developer has complete freedom to offer its own app stores and billing systems on Android, and we don’t yet know how or even whether a judge might grant those wishes.

Judge Donato has already stated that he will do so no Grant Epic’s additional request for the anti-circumvention clause “just to make sure that Google can’t re-present the same issues with some creative workaround,” Epic’s lead lawyer Gary Bornstein said on November 28.

“We don’t issue injunctions not to break the law…if you have a problem, you can come back,” Donato said. He also said he doesn’t intend to set a percentage fee that Google should charge for its products.

Although Epic has not filed a lawsuit seeking damages, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney noted that Epic would stand to make hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars if it did not have to pay Google’s fees.

This is the verdict form that the jurors had to fill out Epic vs Google:

We will replace it with the final signed form as soon as we have access to a digital copy.

It is very likely that Google will appeal this case; We’ll update this story as soon as we hear.