“It proves that Google’s app store practices are illegal and they abuse their monopoly to extract exorbitant fees, stifle competition, and reduce innovation,” Epic said in a statement following the ruling. Notably, the jury ruled in favor of all the questions posed by Epic in the court. The verdict states that Google deliberately obtained or preserved its monopoly through unfair competitive practices, putting Epic at a disadvantage due to Google’s breach of antitrust regulations.
Additionally, Google is said to have struck deals that unjustly limited competition in a key market and illegally linked the use of its Google Play Store with the mandatory use of Google Play Billing. During the legal battle, it was revealed that Google gave Spotify a special deal, allowing it to fully avoid the Google Play Store fees. Additionally, Netflix was also said to have scored a deal that reduced its cut to Google to just 10%.
That was considered a grave violation, as it gave undue advantage to Spotify and Netflix in their rivalry against other content streaming platforms, which had to part ways with a much higher share of their respective in-app revenue. Notably, Epic never sued for any monetary compensation from Google. It remains to be seen what remedies are forced on Google, and how they may help other grieving developers. This won’t be the only such fight for Google, though. The EU and India are also looking into similar monopolistic conduct at the companyand have already proposed some radical changes.