by Greg Bensinger and Mike Scarcella

(Reuters) – Epic Games won a high-profile U.S. lawsuit on Monday against Alphabet-owned Google, which the developer of the “Fortnite” video game accused of illegal monopoly with its online app store. Google Play line.

This decision, if it were to be confirmed – Google announced that it would appeal – could shake up the economy of “app stores” as a whole.

According to court documents, the jurors unanimously agreed with Epic on all points, at the end of a trial that lasted more than a month.

Epic has filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing it of taking steps to crush all competition and imposing excessively high taxes of up to 30% on smartphone application developers.

The federal court in San Francisco will begin work in January to determine the remedies to be taken.

This is a bitter setback for Google, which, like Apple, operates one of the world’s largest app stores and could be forced to give developers more control over their applications and the revenue they generate. .

“We will continue to defend the Android business model and remain deeply committed to our users, partners and the entire Android ecosystem,” said one of the vice presidents of Google, Wilson White, in a press release sent by email announcing that the technology giant would appeal the decision.

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In a statement posted on its website, Epic said the verdict “proves that Google’s practices for its app store are illegal.” “(Google) abuses its dominant position to extract exorbitant fees, stifle competition and reduce innovation.”

Jurors deliberated in less than four hours, after lawyers for both companies made final arguments in the morning.

Epic accused Google of illegally linking Play and its billing service, forcing developers to use both to have their apps appear in the group’s online store.

While the Play store represents a minor share of Google’s revenues compared to its online search engine, it has symbolic value as a gateway to billions of smartphones and tablets.

Epic filed a similar antitrust complaint against Apple in 2020, which a judge largely ruled in favor of in September 2021. The developer asked the US Supreme Court to look into the main accusations made against the Apple firm. Apple, for its part, is seeking to reverse part of the judgment ruling in favor of Epic and which would force the technology giant to modify the App Store regulations.

(Reporting Mike Scarcella, Greg Bensinger and Peter Henderson; Jean Terzian)

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