Epic Games has called for a federal judge in California to force Google to allow greater competition on its Play Store after a jury found the US search giant had abused its power as a gatekeeper for mobile apps.
The Fortnite maker proposed on Thursday (11 April) that the Google Play Store should be required to allow the distribution of competing third-party app stores for six years. Epic also proposed the limiting of Google’s ability to make agreements with device makers to restrict the preloading of competing app stores.
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In December, a jury found that Google unlawfully limited developers’ ability to distribute apps outside of Google’s Play Store.
Writing on its blog at the time, Epic Games stated that the ruling was a “win for app developers and consumers around the world” and noted that the court case signified a need for legislation over both Apple and Google’s influence on app markets.
Google has denied any wrongdoing and continued to defend its Play Store practices.
The lawsuit from Epic did not require Google to pay any monetary damages. However, the search engine giant agreed to pay $700m to resolve state and consumer allegations against its Play Store.
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By GlobalDataAt the time, Google said it was implementing a feature that allowed app developers to provide customers with an alternative billing option.
