Google’s and Apple’s Walled Gardens Are Still Standing — For Now
The Alphabet unit’s loss to Epic Games in a landmark antitrust case has dislodged a brick in the app stores, but the foundations are strong and designed to last.
Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, successfully challenged Google’s monopoly.
Photographer: Chris Delmas/AFP/Getty Images
A San Francisco jury took less than four hours to decide on Monday that Google was running an illegal monopoly designed to exact huge fees from app developers. The verdict was a huge victory for Epic Games Inc., the maker of Fortnite, and signals that the onerous terms imposed by Google and Apple Inc. for using their walled-offed app stores may be on the way out — but not for a while.
Epic, which sued both Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Apple in 2020, had been being kicked out of Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store for attempting to circumvent the required payment systems — and the cut of up to 30% the companies take from transactions that go through them.