How Epic Games lost antitrust case against Apple, but won against Google | Explained

14.12.2023 - 15:41 / tech.hindustantimes.com / Tim Sweeney

Epic Games came out victorious in the monumental legal battle against Google over the company's monopoly over the Android app marketplace and alleged the company used off-handed tactics to keep its control over the space thereby denying a fair chance for others to participate in the business on an equal footing. The San Francisco jury on Monday, December 11 unanimously delivered the decision in the Google antitrust case, deciding Google's tie between the Google Play app store and its Google Play Billing payment services was illegal, and Project Hug deals with game developers and OEMs, which dictated the distribution agreement were all noncompetitive. Now, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has given an interview explaining the details of the lawsuit and the main reason why the company lost against Apple but managed to win against Google.

Sweeney gave an interview to The Verge and spoke about the lawsuit in depth. Explaining his own emotions at the end of the trial, he said that he was glad to see that despite a rapid jury verdict, it went in the way of the plaintiff which is not the norm. He also applauded the jury for carefully analyzing such a complex tech antitrust case.

He also explained how he was shocked to learn about the details of Google's Project Hug and the tech giant's deal with Spotify.

Project Hug was the codename of a program through which Google silently paid off developers in the region of hundreds of millions of dollars to urge them to keep their games and apps on the Play Store instead of a rival platform. As per Epic's statements made during the lawsuit, the company said that once it announced its feature to bypass Google's fees (by offering a discount if the payment was made on the website), the company was worried that others may follow its lead and thus began the Project Hug to stop major titles in Android ecosystem.

To break down the Spotify deal, this is how you can understand it in simple terms. Google charges the apps that carry out transactions on its platform by taking 30 percent of every transaction that occurs through Google's payment service. A similar amount is levied by Apple, Sony, Microsoft, and other marketplaces as well, with the only notable exception being the Samsung Galaxy Store which charges as less as 12 percent. The payment is slightly less or similar (depending on particular app deals) when the transaction occurs entirely on the app and through its own payment channels.

Now, as per Google's policy, it does not allow any apps to offer any lucrative deal to incentivize users to prefer on-app payment options instead of those provided by Google. Violation of this rule led to the delisting of Epic Games' Fortnite when it began offering more V-bucks at a cheaper rate when