NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Epic Games, a company from the United States, is suing Google in an Indian court for not following some parts of an antitrust directive. The company says that Google’s Play Store app doesn’t host the gaming company’s app store.
The Epic lawsuit is the latest legal problem for the Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc. unit in India. Last month, after losing a legal battle with the Competition Commission of India (CCI), Google said it would make changes to its Android business model, including stopping its practise of forcing device makers to pre-install a bunch of Google apps like YouTube or Chrome.
But Epic said in a Feb. 9 filing with an appeals tribunal in New Delhi that Google has not followed a part of the CCI directive that said Google should host third-party app stores on Play Store and let apps be downloaded for free without using Play Store. This is called “sideloading,” and Reuters saw a copy of Epic’s submissions.
Epic, the company that made the popular video game “Fortnite,” has its own app store, the Epic Games Store, where you can download games and other apps. In the filing, the company says that it is “considering launching” the Games Store app on the Google Play Store and that it has been “harmed” by Google’s failure to follow the CCI order.
In a statement to Reuters, Bakari Middleton, Director of Global Public Policy at Epic Games, said, “We want to join Indian developers in court to support the CCI’s order that Google must allow competing third-party app stores.” The order says that Google must allow competing third-party app stores.
Epic is known for its campaigns against Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google for charging high app store commissions. In India, 9.5 million people use it.
In a statement, Google said that it has sent its “compliance plan to the CCI and will continue to follow the law in India with respect.”
When asked for a comment, the CCI did not respond right away.
In October, the agency said that Google took advantage of the fact that 97% of smartphones in India use the Android operating system, where it is the most popular.
Google said it hadn’t done anything wrong and tried to stop the directive, saying that the ruling would stop the Android ecosystem from growing. India’s Supreme Court told Google to follow the CCI’s instructions, but it also let Google keep arguing its case before the New Delhi appeals tribunal, where Epic had filed its case.
Epic wants to make Google obey the CCI’s decision, and the case is likely to be heard in the next few days.
