After winning its antitrust lawsuit against Google last year, Epic has presented its demands to a US court. However, the search giant has expressed dissatisfaction with these demands.
Google’s VP of Government Affairs and Public Policy, Wilson White, wrote a blog post on May 22 strongly criticizing the list of demands presented by Epic. In the post, he stated that the proposed remedies put forth by Epic would have negative consequences for everyone except for Epic themselves.
On December 11th, Epic Games emerged victorious in a federal court case against Google. The jury unanimously ruled that Google had created an unlawful monopoly with their Google Play app store and Google Play Billing service.
Epic, the creator of Fortnite, has requested that users be allowed to download apps from any source, rather than just the Google Play Store. This request was made in an effort to prevent Google from pressuring device manufacturers and carriers to prioritize the use of Google Play. Additionally, Epic is seeking to eliminate fees for bypassing the Play Store, which it considers to be unfair competition. These are just a few of the requests made by Epic in their submission.
Google has deemed Epic’s proposed demands as “unnecessary”and states that they exceed the scope of the recent U.S. trial verdict. In a list of 6 bullet points, Google has explained the reasons why these demands are considered “problematic and unnecessary”.
Google has stated that Epic’s proposal poses a threat to the security of Android users on third-party app stores. This is due to the removal of Google’s trust and safety measures that are in place to protect users. Additionally, Google has expressed concern for the privacy of Android users, as they will be required to disclose to all third-party app stores which apps have been downloaded through Google Play.
According to Google, the proposal would limit developers’ control over the distribution of their apps by placing them on a store that lacks the same user protections as the Play Store. Additionally, the proposal would restrict Google’s ability to provide financial incentives to developers for distributing their apps on the Play Store, potentially cutting off important business opportunities for developers.
Ultimately, Google asserts that Epic’s proposal would negatively impact device manufacturers by limiting their potential earnings from pre-installing and placing apps on their devices.
Google will contest these demands in court, with Judge James Donato presiding over a hearing on May 23 where experts from both sides will present their arguments.
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