Today the jury in the Epic vs Google trial handed down its verdict, and it was a landslide victory for the developer of Fortnite.
The court documents shared by The Verge show that the Jury answered positively to all the questions it was asked, including that Google “wilfully acquired or maintained monopoly power by engaging in anticompetitive conduct.”
According to the Jurt, Epic Games also proved that it was injured by Google’s violation of the antitrust laws.
The result is certainly interesting, considering that Epic wasn’t nearly so successful in its fight against Apple, yet, the two trials went down in very different ways, including the fact that this time the verdict was delivered by a jury and not by a single Judge.
At the moment, it isn’t known what kind of remedies Epic Games will win, as these will be decided by a Judge following a meeting with both parties in mid-January. Epic has not asked for any monetary damages in its lawsuit.
Epic Games commented on the verdict on its blog mentioning that the trial showed how “Google was willing to pay billions of dollars to stifle alternative app stores by paying developers to abandon their own store efforts and direct distribution plans, and offering highly lucrative agreements with device manufacturers in exchange for excluding competing app stores.”
The developer also mentions that the trial proves the urgent need for legislation that would address Apple and Google’s hold on the smartphone market, pointing to promising legislation in the works in the UK and in Europe.
It’ll certainly be interesting to see what kind of ripples this decision will cause in the market beyond the remedies that Google may have to enact in favor of Epic Games. That being said, the creators of Android have already said that they will appeal the decision, so the fight isn’t yet close to its end.
