A jury trial that threatens to upend Google’s Play Store began on Monday in U.S. court in San Francisco, where “Fortnite” maker Epic Games accused the Alphabet unit of abusing its power over app distribution and payments in violation of federal antitrust law.
Epic hopes to convince jurors that Google’s app store policies have hurt quality and innovation among app developers and distributors and caused consumers to pay artificially higher prices.
Google planned to present counterclaims that Epic has violated its contract with Google. The trial is expected to last at least four weeks.
The companies declined to comment. Epic largely lost a non-jury trial against Apple over its App Store in 2021, but both sides have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the court’s ruling.
Google is separately fighting U.S. government antitrust claims over its search dominance at a trial in Washington, D.C., and it is preparing as early as next year to defend its digital ads policies at yet another trial.
Cary, North Carolina-founded Epic introduced its hugely popular multiplayer shooter game “Fortnite” in 2017. It is seeking an injunction that could force Google to open up the distribution of apps to Android users beyond the Play Store and also provide consumers greater options for processing payments within Android apps.
“As a result of its anticompetitive acts, Google faces no meaningful competition or threat of competition,” Epic’s lawyers said in a court filing. The lawsuit does not seek monetary damages.
Google has denied Epic’s claims and argued that the lawsuit is “based on the fiction that Google does not compete against Apple.”
The same federal jury will hear counterclaims from Google accusing Epic of breaching contractual obligations by introducing additional payment methods in Fortnite on Android and Apple devices.
“Epic’s deceitful conduct unjustly enriched Epic at Google’s expense,” Google said in a filing.
In the lead-up to trial, Google settled similar claims from dating app maker Match Group, which sought monetary damages in addition to an injunction.
Google also settled antitrust claims over its Play Store from U.S. states and U.S. consumers, but the terms of that deal have not been disclosed publicly.