What you need to know
- Google and Epic Games have filed their joint case management statement ahead of the case management conference next week.
- Epic Games wants to get a day in court at the earliest, while Google plans to bring a motion to get the case dismissed.
- Epic claims it has suffered 'irreparable harm' because of Fortnite's removal from the Play Store.
Last month, a filing made on Google's behalf revealed that the search giant plans to bring a motion to get Epic Games' Fortnite case dismissed. Ahead of the case management conference in San Francisco next Thursday, both Epic Games and Google have filed their joint case management statement with the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California (via FOSS Patents).
In its statement, Epic Games has claimed that Google leverages its monopoly in the merchant market for mobile operating systems to maintain monopolies in the Android app distribution and in-app payment processing markets. It says Google has taken a number of steps to discourage app downloads outside of the Play Store and forces app developers into using Google Play Billing to process in-app purchases.
The game developer claims Fortnite was removed from the Play Store "for introducing competition to Google Play Billing." It claims to have suffered "irreparable harm" due to the move, as Fortnite's removal from the Play Store has made it impossible to distribute the game to a large number of Android users who do not download apps through alternative app stores.
While Epic wants the case to go to trial as soon as possible, Google wants to get it dismissed before it even begins. In its statement, Google has said that it hasn't retaliated against Epic and any harm the game developer has suffered "is of its own making."
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