Epic Games sues Google in India for failing to host third-party app stores
Beijing, February 14 (Xinhua)-- Game developer Epic Games has reportedly filed a lawsuit against Google in an appeals court in New Delhi, India, accusing Google of failing to host a third-party app store in its Play Store app store in accordance with the ruling of India's antitrust regulator, the Indian Competition Commission (CCI).
Last October, CCI in India fined Google about $160 million (currently about 1.091 billion yuan) for unfair competition related to Android. In addition to the fine, CCI also asked Google not to force smartphone makers to pre-install Google apps such as YouTube and Chrome.
Last month, after India's Supreme Court rejected Google's appeal, Google said it would make changes to its Android business model, including no longer forcing device makers to pre-install Google applications.
Even so, Google was sued by Epic Games. Epic Games alleges in the indictment that Google did not comply with some of CCI's rulings, including that Google should host a third-party app store in its Play Store app store and allow users to download apps directly from the third-party app store.
As we all know, Epic Games runs its own app store, Epic Games Store, which provides downloads of games and other apps. But Epic Games was "adversely affected" by Epic Games's complaint that Google did not host Epic Games's app store in its app store.
"We will join Indian developers in supporting CCI's ruling that requires Google to support competitors' third-party app stores," Bakary Bakari Middleton, global public policy director at Epic Games, said in a statement.
Epic Games has sued Google and Apple several times, alleging that the two companies abused their dominant position in the app store to charge developers high commissions. Epic Games has 9.5 million users in India.
Google said it had submitted its compliance plan to CCI and would continue to comply with Indian legal procedures. The case is expected to begin in the next few days.
