Google files counterclaim against Epic in lawsuit

Epic had filed a lawsuit against Google for booting Fortnite off the Play Store

Google has filed a counter-claim against Epic Games as an answer to an anti-trust lawsuit filed by the Fortnite maker. Much like the ongoing Apple and Epic trial, Epic sued Google and called its practices anti-competitive, when Fortnite was booted off the Play Store for breach of the agreement.

Like they did iOS, Epic updated Fortnite to reroute payments through its own systems, violating Google's contract and getting booted off the store.

Now Google says that it is owed compensation, as Epic breached the Google Play Developer Distribution Agreement (DDA) by choosing to cut out Google Play's payment systems.

Google confirmed that it had notified Epic Games the day they updated the app and told them they were in violation of the DDA,  Malicious Behaviour Policy, and Billing Policies before yeeting the app off the store.

Unlike Apple, Google hasn't disabled Epic's developer account, so they can still come back to the Play Store if they submit an altered version of the app, with the questionable update removed. People who had downloaded the Android version of Fortnite before removal could still use Epic's payment system, which forms a large basis for the counterclaim from Google.

As Techcrunch reported, Google stated that "Epic, a multibillion-dollar company backed by two of the world’s largest video game developers, has profited immensely from the safe, secure platform provided by Google Play, a platform for which it pays a fee equivalent or less than that charged by other major platform providers," said the company in the counterclaim.

“Not satisfied with those immense profits, it entered into a legal agreement with Google with which it never intended to comply, deceiving Google and concealing its true intentions to provoke a legal and public relations confrontation that continues to this day. Its actions have put its own users at risk, have harmed Google, and are deserving of relief from this Court,” Google added.