Epic lays out Google’s alleged “bribe and block” monopoly strategy in trial opening

Enlarge / How’s about we just forget about those plans for a competing Android app store? (credit: Getty Images | krisanapong detraphiphat)

For years now, Google has stressed the “open” nature of the Android’s sideloading-enabled mobile platform over Apple’s completely locked-down iOS App Store. But Epic has used the opening days of its jury trial against Google to argue that this technical openness hasn’t prevented Google from creating an effective monopoly over Android app distribution through its Google Play Store.

In its opening statement (as reported by multiple sources inside the San Francisco federal courtroom), Epic attorney Gary Bornstein pointed out that the Google Play Store is responsible for 90 percent of all Android app downloads, resulting in $12 billion in profit for Google. And Epic argues that Google has maintained that dominance through a “bribe and block” strategy that “pays actual and potential competitors not to compete—literally gives them money and other things of value.”

Epic’s opening arguments specifically called out League of Legends maker Riot Games as one of the companies that Google paid to eliminate the possible launch of a competing Android app store. While Epic says Google was smart enough not to note this payment in written contractual language, a less formal system helped ensure Riot was one of many companies that would “sit this one out and let [Google] win.”