A federal jury in San Francisco (USA) ruled so on Monday Google has violated antitrust laws with its Play Store platformDedicated to downloading mobile applications, which harmed the interests of video game developers such as Epic Games, as well as their users. The ruling, which was reached unanimously after three hours of deliberations after a three-year legal battle, concluded that Epic Games, maker of Fortnite, had proven… Anti-competitive behavior by Google to charge high download fees And share small profit margins.
The ruling could redefine the rights that will protect software companies in the future in the Play Store, the virtual store where millions of Android users install apps on their smartphones. It is expected to be early next year when Northern District of California Judge James Donato decides on the matter A formula to apply to reverse the situationBut it is not unlikely that the door will be open for other app stores to access the system managed by Google.
Google currently takes up to 30% of purchases made through apps Pre-downloaded from their online store, generating billions of dollars in revenue stream annually.
“Google encourages bribery”
Gary Bornstein, an attorney for Epic Games, described Google during the trial as one of these companies A company that encourages “bribery” and prevents competition in the Play Store. For its part, throughout the trial with Epic Games, Google’s defense refuted the idea that they occupied an anti-competitive position claiming that they were confronting the App Store system, which is only available on Apple’s terminals.
In addition, Google defends this position as a necessity to recoup its $40 billion investment to create the network formerly known as Android Market in 2008.
Play Store, in a dominant position
Google CEO Sundar Pichai and his counterpart at Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, met late last week to no avail to try to reach an agreement in favor of both sides. It’s a strategy the tech giant is already using with other video game companies like Activision Blizzard.
Although there are app stores pre-installed on Android devices made by other brands, Clearly, the Play Store dominates this market Monday’s decision is an acknowledgment of assumptions about this Google committed legal fraud Which even undermined the innovative efforts of other companies.
The technology giant faces another antitrust trial in Washington after allegations from the US Department of Justice that Google abused its dominance as an Internet search engine by paying billions of dollars to obtain this privileged position.
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