Google says Epic's Play Store demands are too much and too selfish

Epic Games won its antitrust lawsuit against Google in December when a federal jury found that the latter violated US antitrust laws regarding the way it manages the Play Store. A few months later, the game developer presented its list of demands, which, if implemented, will leave the Play Store open. Now, Google has filed an injunction telling the court that no, it won't give Epic what it wants without a fight, because the company's requests “stray far beyond the trial record.”

The solutions Epic had presented would require the court to not only create a global regulatory regime to set app prices, Google wrote in the filing seen by Engadget, but also micromanage “a highly complex and dynamic ecosystem” used by billions. of consumers. and application developers from around the world. If you remember, Epic wants Google to open Android to third-party app stores and make its app catalog available to those stores. It also wants restrictions on pre-installed apps to be banned and any Google activity that incentivizes third parties to be banned.

Google said giving in to all those demands would “effectively prevent it from competing,” which in turn would negatively impact Android users and developers. Epic's proposals only benefit Epic, Google said in its filing, and will harm other developers by depriving them of control over where their app is distributed. Manufacturers will no longer be able to take advantage of the partnerships that Google typically offers, while users will have to deal with additional security and privacy risks.

The company also criticized Epic for the “vagueness” of its proposed injunction, which would require repeated and continued intervention by the courts. Similarly, Epic's lawsuits would apparently require the court to micromanage Google's business.

“Epic's lawsuits would harm the privacy, security, and overall experience of consumers, developers, and device manufacturers,” Wilson White, Google's vice president of government affairs and public policy, told Engadget in a statement. “Not only does their proposal go far beyond the scope of the recent US trial verdict, which we will challenge, but it is also unnecessary given the agreement we reached last year with state attorneys general from all states and multiple territories. We will continue to vigorously advocate our right to a sustainable business model that allows us to keep people safe, partner with developers to innovate and grow their businesses, and maintain a thriving Android ecosystem for all.”

Google said that if Epic really wants to promote competition rather than create “an unfair, court-supervised advantage for itself,” then it would draw inspiration from its settlement with state officials who previously accused the company of abusing its dominance in Android application distribution. . Unsurprisingly, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney was unhappy with that deal. twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/1699291375160656010″ rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:tweeting;cpos:4;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas” class=”link “>tweeting at that time: “If Google ends its payments monopoly without imposing a Google Tax on third-party transactions, we will reach a settlement and be friends with Google in its new era. But if the settlement simply compensates the other plaintiffs and leaves the Google Tax “Consumers will only benefit if antitrust enforcement not only opens markets but also restores price competition.”