Google Countersues Epic Games for Breach of Contract

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Google Countersues Epic Games for Breach of Contract

Google has taken the fight to Epic Games, countersuing the company for breach of contract.

Epic sued both Apple and Google, claiming the two companies were monopolies, given their control over their respective app stores. Apple largely won its case, with the judge ruling it was not a monopoly and that it acted within its rights to ban Fortnite when Epic breached its contract with Apple.

In fact, the judge in the Apple case pointed out Epic’s hypocrisy in creating a crisis by breaching its contract, thereby escalating the situation, and then claiming it was suffering damage from that escalation. Judge Rodgers also ordered Epic to pay Apple fees for the months it was in breach of its developers agreement with Apple.

At the same time, the judge did issue a permanent injunction preventing Apple from prohibiting developers from providing links to their own payment methods, methods that would be outside of Apple’s commission.

No doubt bolstered by Judge Rodgers’ decision in that case, Google has now countersued Epic for providing a version of Fortnite via the Play Store that links to Epic’s outside payment processing, thereby bypassing Google’s fees. According to ZDNet, Google has made it clear it has no problem with Epic providing their own payment system — as long as it is done on a side-loaded version of Fortnite, one outside the Play Store.

“Epic has alternatively been unjustly enriched at Google’s expense,” reads Google’s complaint, according to ZDNet.

“Consumers and developers don’t have to use Google Play, they choose to use it when given a choice among Android app stores and distribution channels. Google supports that choice through Android itself, Google Play’s policies, and Google’s agreements with developers and device manufacturers.”

Google Countersues Epic Games for Breach of Contract
Matt Milano

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