Google offered Fortnite creator Epic Games $200 million and proposed to acquire equity in the company to prevent it from opening its own app store with exclusive content that could compete with the search giant’s Play Store, a court has heard.
Google is nearing “monopoly levels” with its exploitation of the Android brand to prevent other app stores from competing with its Play Store, the maker of the Fortnite video game has said in a landmark competition trial.
Apple has made exceptional profits skimming a 30 per cent commission from sales on its app store, dubbed by the tech giant’s CEO an “economic miracle”, Epic Games has said on the first day of trial in a landmark competition case.
An Australian court will get a chance to weigh in on whether Apple and Google violated their dominant position in the app marketplace by requiring developers to use their payment systems or face a 30 per cent fee, when trial kicks off Monday in Fortnite game maker Epic Games’ case and two related class actions against the tech giants.
The High Court will consider an exception to the general immunity of foreign states for the first time, as it hears an appeal of a decision which found Indonesia’s national airline could avail itself of foreign state immunity to defeat a winding up application.
A judge has ordered lawsuits by Fortnite owner Epic Games against Apple and Google to be heard together with class actions against the tech giants on behalf of app developers and customers who accuse them of distorting competition in the app marketplace.
A court has set aside former Federal Minister for Resources Keith Pitt’s decision to develop a nuclear waste facility in Napandee in South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, saying a fair-minded observer may have perceived that Pitt was biased in selecting the site over two other proposed locations.
ASIC has won orders declaring that Gold Coast-based BHF Solutions and Cigno needed a credit licence to issue loans to hundreds of thousands of customers, after the High Court tossed a challenge by the payday lenders.
A landmark case brought by a shareholder advocacy group accusing Santos of greenwashing will seek to argue the energy company misled the market by presenting its carbon offset programs as plans to reduce emissions.
Google has denied class action that it distorted competition in the app marketplace and left consumers paying higher prices, pointing out in its defence there are alternative app stores on its Android platform.