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Google paid millions to block rival app stores, according to 2020 lawsuit

A lawsuit revealed that Google made deals with Activision and Riot Games to prevent app store competitors.

November 18, 2022 10:30 AM

With how massive the Google Play Store is for Google and its overall business, the company goes above and beyond to ensure its continued success. That apparently includes doing its best to prevent sizable competitors from being formed at similar companies. According to a lawsuit filed back in 2020, Google cut massive multi-million dollar deals with companies like Activision Blizzard and Riot Games to stop them from rivaling the Google Play Store.

As we learned through Reuters, an Epic Games court filing from 2020 was recently uncovered. In the filing, the Fortnite developer reveals that Google made deals with at least 24 companies to stop them from competing with the Google Play Store. The largest deal was with Activision Blizzard, as Google agreed to pay the company $360 million over a three-year period. It’s also mentioned that a deal was made to pay Riot Games $30 million. Epic Games states that Google was aware that its deal "effectively ensured that (Activision) would abandon its plans to launch a competing app store."

Nintendo, Ubisoft, and Calm were also named as companies that made deals with Google. Google refuted the allegations of anti-competitive practices, stating that it was keeping developers on its platform happy, a symptom of healthy competition. This echoes the extensive feud that Epic Games held with Apple, which also stemmed from alleged anti-competitive practices. This was when Google was first pulled into a legal debacle with Epic Games.

Anti-competitive practices have been a strong point of emphasis over the past couple of years. It remains to be seen if Google will deal with any repercussions for the claims made by Epic in the lawsuit filing. For more legal news as it relates to the biggest companies in tech, stick with Shacknews.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_

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