The war between Epic Games and Google is still raging on, but it’s starting to reach its conclusion. We’re now in the final days of the legal battle with the closing statements set to take place on December 11. Before the gavel is brought down, both companies are ordered to sit down and talk. According to a new report, the court ordered Google and Epic Games to hold settlement talks.
If you don’t recall, Epic Games is suing Google for its alleged monopoly over the Android app market. The Google Play Store is, obviously, the go-to place to download Android apps, regardless of the other app stores out there.
Not only that, but Epic Games doesn’t want to pay the exorbitant 30% fee for using Google’s billing system. After battling it out for years, the Fortnite maker has laid out its demands for Google to abide by. It listed three demands, but one was tossed out by the court.
Firstly, Epic wants it and other developers to be able to open their own app stores on Android without any restrictions. Secondly, it wants the freedom to use its own billing system on the Play Store. Lastly, it wants the court to keep Google from developing any workarounds to side-step its demands.
The last demand was tossed out by the court. Judge Donato told Epic that this was too broad of a demand. If Google develops a workaround that Epic doesn’t like, then it should return to the court. “If you have a problem, you come back,”.
The demands are set, and Google will have until December 4th to formally respond to these demands. We’re still waiting to see if Google will agree or toss out the other two demands.
Google And Epic are ordered to have settlement talks
Many large cases like these end in settlements. One thing that the court realized was that, throughout this process, neither of the companies tried to settle. Well, this is what both companies are ordered to do. The court is putting both arguing children in the playpen until they can work out their differences.
We’re not sure if there’s a definite date for the talks, but they must be held before the judge gives his final verdict. The talks are slated to happen between four people. Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic, is one while a Google representative will fill the second seat. The remaining seats belong to each company’s respective attorney.
At this point, we don’t know if the talks will end in a settlement, no settlement, or a four-way fistfight. We’ll need to wait for the results. Depending on the verdict, the future of Google’s dominance over the Android app market could change immensely.
2023-12-02 15:07:06