Attendees stand in front of the Google Play booth during the Tokyo Game Show 2018 on September 20, 2018 in Chiba, Japan. The Tokyo Game Show is held from September 20 to 23, 2018. (Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images) A federal judge in San Francisco on Monday handed a big victory to Epic Games Inc. in its long-running antitrust challenge to the technology giant’s app store, which brought in $14.66 billion in sales in 2020. The ruling comes after the maker of the popular video game Fortnite convinced a jury that Google abused its power in the Android app market with its Google Play store policies.
Epic had argued that Google Play rules and fees stifled competition and blocked app marketplaces launched by developers. The judge’s decision is likely to accelerate the weakening of app store controls held by tech giants Google and Apple Inc. that have been under fire from regulators and lawmakers around the world.
In August, Google lost an antitrust case in which the US Justice Department accused the the company of illegally monopolizing online search and advertising markets.