Epic
has filed a lawsuit against Google over Fortnite and accused it of violating its
anti-trust policies. These occurred hours after Fortnite dropped from both
Google Play Store and IOS App Store. A similar lawsuit has been filed against
Apple.
Epic
believes that the payment restrictions applied by Google on Play Store regarding Epic games app comprise
some sort of monopoly and assists in violation of California’s
Cartwright Act as well as the Sherman Act.
In
case it wasn’t clear earlier, Fortnite – a game owned by Epic, was recently
removed from the Google Play Store today.
Epic’s
complain against Google targets its infamous mantra “Don’t
Be Evil” and calls it merely an afterthought. According to Epic, Google is
using its size to beat its competitors, fellow innovators, as well as
customers. Apparently, there’s a bigger game happening.
As
mentioned earlier, Epic has also sued Apple – and has applied similar charges.
It accused the big company for controlling the distribution of software to
phones as well as the payment procedure and systems. Epic feels that Google
holds massive power when it comes to the distribution of Android apps.
It’s
a fact that Android software permits the installation of third-party app stores which
obviously includes Epic’s games. Apple also provides direct links – making its
path clear that it has no involvement whatsoever. Now for so many years,
Fortnite was only accessible via sideloading and now that it was finally available
on Google Play Store – it was a gone case from the very beginning.
Epic
filed the lawsuit on Thursday claiming the following:
“Notwithstanding
its promises to make Android devices open to competition, Google has erected
contractual and technological barriers that foreclose competing ways of
distributing apps to Android users, ensuring that the Google Play Store
accounts for nearly all the downloads of apps from app stores on Android
devices.”
“For
game developers who choose to use the Play Store, we have consistent policies
that are fair to developers and keep the store safe for users. While Fortnite
remains available on Android, we can no longer make it available on Play
because it violates our policies. However, we welcome the opportunity to
continue our discussions with Epic and bring Fortnite back to Google Play.”
For now, we just hope that things resolve soon and gamers could go back to being carefree
while playing Fortnite. Meanwhile, you can purchase Fortnite
The Chapter 1 Collection from Amazon and various other games in case you can no more find them on Google store.