In his Monday testimony, Sweeney recalled how Google called him into its Mountain View, California, headquarters to try to persuade Epic to release Fortnite in the Play Store instead. Unlike Apple's iPhone app store, Google already allows competition to the Play Store - something that Epic tried to do when it decided to roll out Fortnite for Android phones in 2018 on its own website instead of the Play Store. Epic is appealing the outcome of the Apple trial to the U.S.
It's similar to a payment system that Epic unsuccessfully challenged in a parallel lawsuit filed against Apple's iPhone app store. Much of Kravis' his cross-examination appeared design to cast Sweeney as an executive primarily interested in bypassing a long-standing commission system to boost his video game company's profits.Įpic, the maker of the popular Fortnite game, alleges that Google has been engaged in illegal price-gouging by collecting commissions ranging from 15% to 30% on in-app digital transactions. While Sweeney sought to depict Google as a greedy monopolist under questioning by his own lawyer, Google attorney Jonathan Kravis tried to flip the script.
