Amidst ongoing monopoly claims recently made by the Department of Justice, Google now faces a second antitrust lawsuit in defense of its Android Play Store. The corporation confronts Epic Games after a dispute in August 2020, in which Epic updated the game Fortnite that allowed the company to bill its customers directly for in-app purchases, instead of through app stores. In the Android Play Store and iPhone App Store, Google and Apple promptly removed Fortnite from their stores, and Epic sued both companies of taking an unfair cuts in revenue from in-app purchases.

In the DOJ case, the issue is whether Google broke the law by negotiating exclusive deals with mobile phone manufacturers and browser makers to make the Google search engine the default for users. The case could determine whether Google can continue to expand its presence in the current search engine competition.

There also lies a key difference between the allegations against Apple and Google in the Epic suit. Google allows the installation of software off the web, known as “sideloading”. Epic plans to argue that even with this feature, Google monopolizes the market by creating difficulties for consumers to get access to apps. Epic also wants to call to attention that they have prevented the installation of alternative app stores, which would violate federal competition laws and California trade laws.

Google claims its fees to developers are one of the lowest across all major app stores, citing 99% of the developers are charged a fee of only 15% or less.