Australian court finds Apple, Google guilty of being anticompetitive

Apple and Google have been dealt a big blow in a Federal Court trial in Australia. The App Store and Google Play Store were deemed to be anticompetitive.

Epic Games had sued Apple and Google in 2020, due to their app markets' 30% commission fees, and the removal of Fortnite from the two stores. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the lawsuits began 5 years ago as four separate cases, but since some issues overlapped, they were heard as a single trial.

Epic may have lost its antitrust battle against Apple in the U.S., but it won its lawsuit against Google, which was found to have built an illegal monopoly in the Android market.

Its case in Australia was based on similar claims. Epic had claimed that the tech giants maintained an illegal monopoly over their app markets, and created walled gardens that locked out rival app stores, including its own. Apple and Google had argued that these claims were false, and that restrictions placed on their app stores were to protect the privacy and security of its users.

In a judgment that spanned 2000 pages, Australian Federal Court Justice Jonathan Beach, ruled that Apple had a substantial degree of market power. The Judge said both Apple and Google had breached Section 46 of Australia’s Competition Act. The companies had abused their market power to stifle the competition. But, it wasn't all in favor of Epic Games. Beach rejected the claim that Apple and Google had breached consumer law, he also said that the companies had not engaged in unconscionable conduct.

Apple said welcomed the court's rejection of some of Epic Games' claims, and that it disagreed with the rulings on others. Google also welcomed the rejection of some claims, but disagreed with the characterization of its billing policies, practices, and some partnerships. Google is reviewing the decision, to assess its next steps.

Epic Games has said that Fortnite will soon be available in Australia, along with the Epic Games Store for iOS. Fortnite had recently returned to iPhones in the U.S.

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