Epic Games Wins 'Total Victory' in Google Play Store Dispute

Next Ford dealerships will be required to give floor space to Chevrolet and Honda.

ah so you can download a store within a store. just like how I can shop inside a Target inside a Walmart inside Amazon right? because that's what consumers really want: more complexity.

so dumb.

Why force them to host other app stores? Can’t apps be installed outside the Google Play Store? At this rate epic should be forced to allow Steam, Xbox PC, and Ubisoft Store to be downloaded from their store. And anyone who sells their game through epic should be allowed to advertise lower priced options via direct download or alternate stores in the epic store.

Google will also be required to make the Play app catalog available to competitors.

Am I misunderstanding something here? This makes it seem like anyone can just create a new interface, charge their own fees, and profit off of google’s work.

If Target was the only company that owned land for the state of New York and got to dictate where, when, and how Walmart could build their stores, what they could sell, and even whether or not Walmart could build a store, we would all agree that would be bad.

Android exists. Everyone knows what they’re getting into when they buy an iPhone.

Apple in the case of the iPhone is the land owner. They control what other stores are allowed to operate and how they sell their goods or services, same with google for the most part.

Saying “just leave the iPhone” is like saying “just leave New York” in my target example.

No it’s not. Moving states is a massive effort, buying a new phone is easy.

Also there are stores within a store. Starbucks inside Target, Toys R Us inside Macys, Malls in general. I am dumbfounded why people advocate against consumer choice.

And those stores within a store pay rent, or otherwise sign agreements with store owner. They don’t get access to the other store’s customers and property for free.

Such a catastrophic loss for every apple owner that the Jury ruled wrong in that case. It could be a decade or longer before Apple is forced to allow the owner of the device to use it as the owner wishes.

I would like to know how they came to such a ridiculous verdict.

Wasn’t a jury, was a judge. And she ruled correctly (except, ironically, on the one part she ruled in favor of Epic on - she ruled the anti-steering provision violated California law, but a California court later said it didn’t, the appeals court agreed it didn’t. But unfortunately for Apple, they didn’t rule until after the federal case was done).

The reason Apple won and Google lost was well explained by Ben Thompson ('https://stratechery.com/2023/google-loses-antitrust-case-to-epic-the-differences-between-apple-and-google-revisited-the-tying-question/'), but it’s behind a paywall. Apologies for the long quote:

* Discovery showed extensive evidence that Google was purposely acting to limit not just Epic but other developers from launching (or joining) alternative game stores.
* One way that Google limited developers was by buying them off, i.e. investing in them directly.
* Google similarly effectively paid off OEMs to stop them from shipping with alternative stores; this payment usually took the form of Google Play revenue shares.
* Google made special deals with top app makers, including allowing Spotify to not use Google payments at all (in lieu of their own), and Netflix only needing to pay a 10% fee.
* Google offered little evidence to justify its 30% fee.

That last point may seem odd in light of Apple’s victory, but again, Apple was offering an integrated product that it fully controlled and customers were fully aware of, and is thus, under U.S. antitrust law, free to set the price of entry however it chooses. Google, on the other hand, “entered into one or more agreements that unreasonably restrained trade” — that quote is from the jury instructions, and is taken directly from the Sherman Act — by which the jurors mean basically all of them: the Google Play Developer Distribution Agreement, investment agreements under the Games Velocity Program (i.e. Project Hug), and Android’s mobile application distribution agreement and revenue share agreements with OEMs, were all ruled illegal.

An EPIC win for Epic