What Google’s antitrust defeat means for the app economy
IT TOOK less than four hours for nine jurors to reach a verdict. On December 11th in a San Francisco courthouse they unanimously agreed that Google’s app store was a monopoly and that the company had engaged in anticompetitive behaviour. The decision strikes a blow against the search giant, which is concurrently embroiled in other legal battles. It may also redefine the app-store economy.
Most smartphones run on one of two operating systems. Apple’s iOS is a walled garden with just one app store—its own. Other device-makers tend to use Google’s Android, which on paper lets in app stores other than the Google Play store. The case was about whether it does in practice. In 2020 Epic Games, a game studio, urged players to use its payments system to make purchases in “Fortnite”, its blockbuster shoot ’em up. The idea was to bypass the 30% cut taken by Apple and Google on most in-app purchases in their app stores. “Fortnite” was briefly banned from both.
Epic sued. Its lawyers argued Google was stifling competition by striking deals with, among others, smartphone-makers such as Samsung and LG, to give the Play store prime placement on their devices in exchange for a cut of revenues. The jurors did not buy Google’s defence that it competes fiercely with Apple, as well as other app stores on Android devices.
2023-12-14 09:06:18
Article from www.economist.com
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