OnePlus was drawn into Epic lawsuit with Google in the unexpected way

Not long after being removed by Google from the Play Store, the creator of the game Epic Games filed a lawsuit against the search giant, a move similar to that it had just done with Apple for a few hours. before.

But the reason for Epic’s lawsuit is something that few people expect: Epic accused Google of forcing phone maker OnePlus to break an agreement with Epic about installing a special launcher with Fortnite preinstalled on phones. OnePlus phones. Not only that, Google is also asking another Android device maker, LG, to abandon similar plans.

With OnePlus, Epic accused Google of “forcing OnePlus to give up the deal” after Google emphasized “concerns” about Epic’s ability to overtake the Play Store. Epic also said that while the initial agreement between Epic and OnePlus would allow the launcher to launch globally, Google “has asked OnePlus not to enforce their contract with Epic limited to certain markets, does not include devices sold in India. ”

Epic also accused Google of “having prevented LG from pre-installing Epic Games apps on LG devices” because – LG had a contract “preventing side-loading apps outside of the Google Play Store this year. ”

Epic argued that, without Google’s actions, the company “could and will negotiate with OEMs to install Fortnite and other Epic titles directly on users’ devices, getting rid of the Google’s non-competitive restrictions. ” Instead, after these deals were canceled, Epic had to go back to releasing its apps to the Play Store in April.

But today, Google removed Fortnite from the Play Store for violating company policy when Epic implemented its own payment system for Fortnite purchases. Therefore, Epic’s lawsuit also accused Google of monopolizing the payment system in the Play Store.

Before Google, Apple also removed Fortnite from the App Store due to the game company’s own payment system. Similar to Google, Epic also filed a lawsuit against Apple for non-competitive practices on the App Store.

Refer to The Verge