Fortnite maker adds Google Australia to legal fight tech giants
Fortnite maker Epic Games launched legal action against Google in Australia on Wednesday, opening another front in its global fight against the stranglehold of tech titans on software marketplaces.
The creator of Fortnite -- just about the most popular games on the globe -- has already been locked in struggle with Google and Apple in america, Europe and Britain, accusing both of unfair control and earnings practices in their application stores.
Mirroring similar action against Apple last November, Epic lodged a suit in the Federal Court of Australia claiming Google is "abusing its control" of the Android mobile operating-system.
By forcing developers to use its in-app payment service and discouraging users from installing third-party application stores, Google breached Australian consumer law, Epic alleged.
"Google provides illusion of being open by making arguments about the presence of alternative application stores," Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said in a statement.
"In reality, these situations are so rare that they barely make a dent in the monopoly of the Android OS."
A Google Australia spokesman declined to comment Wednesday.
Last year, Apple booted Fortnite from its App Store after Epic tweaked it in order to avoid sharing earnings with the iPhone maker.
Unlike Google, Apple does not allow users of its popular devices to download apps from anywhere except the App Store, and developers need to use Apple's payment system which requires a cut.
Apple and Google are also facing growing pushback from other tech giants over their control of software on their platforms.
Facebook and Spotify have claimed Apple is acting in an uncompetitive way by positioning rules on outside developers, which it does not apply to itself.
The gripes prompted the European Union's powerful competition authority to open a series of cases against Apple last June, involving both its App Store and its own Apple Pay payment service.
Australia's competition watchdog is also conducting a broad review of digital platform services.
Apple previously called Spotify and others' complaints "baseless", describing them as sour grapes from companies that do not want to play by the same rules as everybody else.
Source: japantoday.com
