- A new lawsuit calls for Google to take a cut of up to 30% from app developers.
- The submission comes a few days after Epic Google also sued over the cut in payments.
Epic announced that it sued the Google Play Store last week after Fortnite was removed from the store for implementing a direct payment system. The studio introduced its own payment option that offers a 20% discount over the Google payment option.
A new anti-trust lawsuit has now been filed by law firm Hagens Berman in California (h / t: Apple Insider) about Google’s practices regarding Google Play distribution and in-app payment fees. More specifically, the package calls on Google to take a cut of up to 30% from developers.
“It’s about the damage caused by Google’s persistent abuse of its brand power, including the exclusion of competition, the pursuit of innovation, the inhibition of consumer choice, and Google’s commitment to app developers of a supra- competing fee of 30% transaction, “read an excerpt from the filing of the lawsuit.
“Developers are scandalized if they have to pay more than what the market would have absent anti-competitive behavior. Innovation also suffers, as does competition more broadly, ‘reads an excerpt from the report on the firm’s website.
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The suit also points to a number of other Google practices as evidence of anti-competitive behavior. These practices include Google bundling the Play Store and other Google apps as part of a mandatory suite of apps on Android devices, as well as the search giant banning its OEM partners from using a forked version of Android.
It’s worth noting that unlike Apple’s iOS, Android users can install apps from third-party stores and repositories. However, the pack uses Fortnite as an example of a developer trying the side-loading approach, but not finding it worthwhile, with the game finally appearing in the Play Store in April 2020.
Despite this, it looks like this lawsuit and Epic’s legal filings could have massive consequences for the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. You can view the full legal submission here.
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