Epic Games extends its fight with Google to Australia
Epic Games has expanded its legal battle worldwide against the dominant mobile app store operators with a new legal suit against Google in Australia.
The new lawsuit accuses Google of having committed anti-competitive behavior that violates Australian consumer law, and also accuses the search giant of violating the country's 2010 Competition and Consumer Act.
The legal action comes on the heels of a similar action against Apple in Australia last November, and Epic Games' legal battle against app stores now extends to the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as Australia.
According to the lawsuit, the time has come for Apple and Google to allow app makers to exceed 30 percent through alternative app stores or alternative in-app payment systems, and it is now a requirement for a growing number of companies, app developers and regulators who do business with the Apple and Google app store.
Epic Games says: Google is misusing its control over the Android operating system, restricting competition in payment processing and distributing apps via the Google Play Store, and this harmful behavior stifles innovation, reduces consumer choice and leads to price inflation.
And (Tim Sweeney) Tim Sweeney, CEO of the company that made Fortnite, said in a statement: Google deludes everyone that it is open by presenting arguments about the existence of alternative app stores on its platform or allowing the downloading of applications directly from third parties, but in reality these situations are very rare. So much so, that it hardly affects the monopoly.
Sweeney adds: The barriers that Google puts on the Android operating system are real, and he points to the actions Google takes, such as warning users against downloading programs outside the Google Play Store, as ways to scare users to download only approved programs.
He added: Such measures demonstrate that Google is more interested in pretending to be open than providing options for consumers, and we believe that consumers have the right to install applications from the sources of their choice and developers have the right to compete in a fair market.
This argument differs slightly from the one that Epic Games used against Apple in similar measures, as Google allows alternative app stores and external downloads of apps that have not been approved by the Google Play Store.
But Google makes it very difficult to download apps directly via Android devices, forcing the vast majority of users to get apps through the Google Play Store, says Epic Games.