Epic Games: Google Paid Potential Play Store Competitors

Google has paid potential competitors not to develop a competing Android app store, according to prosecutors Epic Games and Tinder owner Match Group. Popular developers would be kept within the Play Store ecosystem this way.

The claims are part of a motion in the lawsuit against Google over the alleged monopoly that the Android operator has. Out court documents it appears that in the motion Epic Games and Match Group make more defenses against Google with regard to anti-competitive practices. Under the Project Hug program, later known as the Apps and Games Velocity Program, Google is said to have paid “hundreds of millions of dollars” to developers. “Some of these agreements were designed to prevent developers from releasing competing app stores, which in some cases succeeded,” the motion said.

This practice would violate the Sherman Act, a major competition law in the United States. According to FOSSpatents the act described would constitute a violation per se under Section 1 of the applicable law. In such a case, the act is by definition illegal and therefore Google would not have a chance to justify why the intentions behind the act might not be punishable.

In 2020 wrote TheVerge that under Project Hug, Google paid Activision Blizzard, among others, to continue offering the company’s apps through the Play Store. The direct reason for this action would be Epic Games, which, because of the Play Store committee, started to offer Fortnite outside the virtual app store.

In a statement to Engadget Google says it will appeal the allegations. “The program on which Epic and Match base their claims simply encourages developers to bring benefits and early access to Google Play users when new content or updates come out. It’s not a way to thwart the development of competing app stores. In fact, it program is proof that Google Play competes fairly against countless rivals by helping developers as they have multiple choices when it comes to operating systems and app stores.”

Several lawsuits are currently pending between Google and Epic Games. Google counterattacked last year after Epic and Match Group filed a lawsuit against the tech giant. Also, Epic Games has multiple pending lawsuits with Apple for similar reasons; Google and Apple would force a monopoly with their respective operating systems and thereby unjustifiably charge high commissions via the Play Store and App Store respectively.

Epic Games’ own payment system in Fortnite for iOS proved to be the catalyst for a wide-ranging legal battle between the game maker and app store operators Apple and Google.

Update, Thursday: In the original article, the Epic Games document was referred to as a “motion.” Although this is not factually incorrect, the more generic term ‘claim’ fits the act better. Thanks to Stephan Square.