Google May Have Better Defense In Fortnite Antitrust Suit

Alphabet’s Google has a better chance than Apple at defeating Fortnite video game maker Epic Games in court over its allegations that the two companies breached antitrust laws, reported Reuters.

Epic sued Google and Apple separately in US district court on Thursday, August 13, accusing the companies of using their dominance to charge app developers an “exorbitant” 30% fee on sales and impose other restrictions that benefit their own businesses. 

Nearly all of the world’s smartphones outside restricted markets such as China come with either Google’s Play store or Apple’s App Store. 

But proving that Play store rules violate antitrust laws may be more difficult than with Apple’s App Store. 

While Apple requires all apps be installed through the App Store, Google allows such installation through several different app stores, in one of several key policy differences that could help it beat the allegations of anticompetitive conduct. 

Google encourages phone makers to set the Play store as the default and it erects security roadblocks when users try to download from some other sources.

Full Content: Reuters

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