Google loses to Epic Games in app store antitrust case

The news: Google has lost an antitrust case brought by Fortnite maker Epic Games, which claimed the tech giant created an unfair market through its Google Play app store, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The numbers: Epic Games had brought the case in 2020, alleging Google had a dominant position for apps on Android mobile devices and was squeezing third party developers for excess fees of up to 30% to host applications on the Play app store.

The context: Epic lost a similar case against Apple earlier in 2023, which also centered around 30% fees for developers along with prominence favouritism for Apple-made apps. During Google's trial, it was revealed the tech giant had deleted chat logs with potentially relevant information to the case. The judge told the jury to assume the logs would not have been favourable to Google, according to WSJ.