Google is pushing to get Epic’s Fortnite antitrust case dismissed

CARY — Google has announced that it would bring a motion to dismiss the complaint filed against it by Epic Games.

A Sept. 3 filing made on Google’s behalf by Morgan Lewis’ Brian Rocca, confirms the search giant plans to challenge Epic’s complaint “based on circumstances unique to Android.”

Epic Games filed a lawsuit against Google after the search giant removed Fortnite from the Play Store last month.

Google removed the wildly popular game from its app store after the Cary-based developer released a new payment system that skirts giving Apple a 30 percent cut of the sales.

Epic also is suing Apple for its ban of Fortnite over the same payments issue.

However, Google wants to keep the cases separate, the filing revealed. It argues that the Android and iOS cases do not overlap each other, other than the fact that both platforms compete against one another to attract app developers and end users.

Google’s lawyers also point out that Google and Apple’s business models and agreements to support rival ecosystems are very different:

While Apple’s iOS allows the distribution of apps only through Apple’s proprietary app store, Android devices, in contrast: (1) can have multiple app stores simultaneously pre-installed or downloaded and (2) allow for end users to sideload apps via the Internet. That means Android app developers can distribute apps through multiple Android app stores, work directly with OEMs or carriers to preload apps, and distribute apps to users directly from their own websites. As a result, Apple and Google each have their own separate and unique negotiations and contracts with app developers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

In case it doesn’t succeed with the motion for dismissal, Google plans to push for the Apple cases to be decided first, reported AndroidCentral.