Wasn’t Everyone Booing Apple Till Fortnite Also Got Kicked Off The Google Play Store?

Epic Games also filed a legal complaint against Apple at the District Court of Northern California before the Google move came about, which reads, “This case concerns Apple’s use of a series of anti-competitive restraints and monopolistic practices in markets for the distribution of software applications (“apps”) to users of mobile computing devices like smartphones and tablets, and (ii) the processing of consumers’ payments for digital content used within iOS mobile apps (“in-app content”). Apple imposes unreasonable and unlawful restraints to completely monopolize both markets and prevent software developers from reaching the over one billion users of its mobile devices (e.g., iPhone and iPad) unless they go through a single store controlled by Apple, the App Store, where Apple exacts an oppressive 30% tax on the sale of every app. Apple also requires software developers who wish to sell digital in-app content to those consumers to use a single payment processing option offered by Apple, In-App Purchase, which likewise carries a 30% tax.”

But Epic Games isn’t going to stop there. They have filed a parallel complaint against Google too, at the same court, which reads, “In 1998, Google was founded as an exciting young company with a unique motto: “Don’t Be Evil”. It then goes on to say, “Epic brings claims under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act and under California law to end Google’s unlawful monopolization and anti-competitive restraints in two separate markets: (1) the market for the distribution of mobile apps to Android users and (2) the market for processing payments for digital content within Android mobile apps. Epic seeks to end Google’s unfair, monopolistic and anti- competitive actions in each of these markets, which harm device makers, app developers, app distributors, payment processors, and consumers.”

Apple and Google both take a 30 percent cut for purchases made via their respective application store platforms. Epic Games has also had a tiff with Apple a few years ago as well and started out its journey on Android in 2018 by being an exclusive for Samsung Galaxy devices via the Samsung Store for a substantial amount of time. Epic Games also pulled Fortnite from the Google Play Store in August 2018 to take advantage of the fact that Google allows users to side-load apps on Android phones, and this allowed them to bypass paying any cut to Google.

“The open Android ecosystem lets developers distribute apps through multiple app stores. For game developers who choose to use the Play Store, we have consistent policies that are fair to developers and keep the store safe for users. While Fortnite remains available on Android, we can no longer make it available on Play because it violates our policies. However, we welcome the opportunity to continue our discussions with Epic and bring Fortnite back to Google Play,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement shared with the media.