Jon Swartz is a senior reporter for MarketWatch in San Francisco, covering many of the biggest players in tech, including Netflix, Facebook and Google. Jon has covered technology for more than 20 years, and previously worked for Barron's and USA Today. Follow him on Twitter @jswartz.
The maker of the popular videogame “Fortnite,” which battled Apple Inc. AAPL, +2.07% in federal court on similar grounds in 2021, is set to open arguments in a jury trial expected to last several weeks starting Nov. 6 in San Francisco. It claims Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGL, +0.82% GOOG, +0.79% Google Play Store restricts competitors from directly distributing their own apps, and instead forces them to have their apps installed via the Play Store.
A parade of bold-faced executives dot a witness list of more than 50 people, including Google and Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai; Google and Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat; Epic CEO Tim Sweeney; and Andy Rubin, one of the co-founders of the Android operating system. Rubin is listed as a “may call” witness, which means it’s possible he won’t take the stand.
Epic eventually released its popular game on the Play Store in April 2020, until it was removed by Google after Epic added a feature that let consumers sidestep Google’s fee, spurring a flurry of lawsuits. “Epic simply wants all the benefits” without paying for what he said is the lowest-fee major app store. Indeed, Epic charges its developers more on its platform, White added.“Google Play competes with other app stores on Android devices and on rival operating systems for developer attention and business,” a Google spokesman said in a statement.
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