Epic Games wins Google Play Store Antitrust Suit
wsj.comThere will be appeal after appeal until the US Supreme Court rules on some obscure fact. My guess is that a conservative court will side with Google. Google might have to change something but it will be minor.
The definition of a monopoly is legally different than what most people think so a jury will get it wrong. To prove a monopoly it must be proved that the customer was harmed. In the app store, Epic is not the customer so they will eventually lose if you follow past case law.
I side with the Jury but a lot of case history has to change for the jury verdict to stand.
The consumer harm rule of antitrust isn't actually part of the law just how it's been interpreted for a while, but I do agree that's how a conservative court will likely rule.
https://www.npr.org/2023/11/01/1197954487/antitrust-double-f...
This is very duped: "Epic vs. Google: Google Loses"-verge[0] (583 points, 5 hours ago, 517 comments), "Jury decides Google has illegal monopoly in app store fight"-verge[1] (222 points, 4 hours ago, 2 comments), "Epic Games wins antitrust lawsuit against Google"-wp[2] (10 points, 4 hours ago, 0 comments)
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38607424 [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38607474 [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38607596
Yay, the gigantic mega corp I feel more aligned with won! On a more serious note, I think that this is broadly a good thing for the consumer. Apple and Google have a monopoly over basically distribution of apps and so the vast majority of people interact with technology most of the time. Having some restrictions on their behaviour and how people can circumvent them being established in the courts is good imo but keen to hear other points of view.
Of course its a good thing, but yeah its just one giant megacorp winning against the other for their own gain. But in this case Epic gain is also gain for consumers and devs of mobile apps/games.
> but yeah its just one giant megacorp winning against the other for their own gain
Going by valuation, Alphabet is 52 times larger than Epic. That difference might justify putting them in separate size categories.
The difference is that Epic was instrumental to creation, whereas Google is only rent-seeking.