Epic Games Amends Blockbuster Lawsuit Against Google In Ongoing Antitrust Battle
The Epic Games fight against anticompetitive Apple and Google is still alive and kicking, as Epic now filed a new complaint against Google. The update adds some redacted details about Google’s allegedly anticompetitive behavior and how Epic Games believes that Google is massaging its own statements to conceal “the full scope of Google’s anticompetitive conduct.”
Of course, the filing from Epic Games opens strongly, stating that Google’s former motto of “Don’t Be Evil” is just an afterthought, and the company is “using its size to do evil upon competitors, innovators, customers, and users in a slew of markets it has grown to monopolize.” The rest of the preliminary statements echoes the same sentiment in different ways, however, there are some redacted points, such as shown below.
Some of these “confidential” paragraphs are quite interesting, such as Google allegedly reaching “preferential deals with major mobile app developers, such as Activision Blizzard,” and other redacted companies. Another interesting piece is over a paragraph of blacked-out text where it is explained that Google “designed and undertook coercive steps” to prevent Epic from distributing competing app stores.
Furthermore, Epic Games is putting Google’s relationship with Samsung under the spotlight, akin to an earlier antitrust lawsuit against Google titled “State of Utah, et al. v. Google LLC.” That suit also had redacted details that Epic could not access, but what it could glean is redacted in this filing.
Hopefully, some of this data will be uncovered soon, as the court filing looks closer to a highly classified document than anything else. However, Google has approximately until August 20th to make a motion to dismiss, with opposition, reply, and a hearing, stretching all the way out to October 14th. Whatever happens, let us know what you think of this debacle in the comments below.
