Google has criticised two competition class actions which piggyback on claims brought by Fornite developer Epic Games as “opportunistic”, but counsel for the class actions told a court the suits on behalf of more than 15 million group members were in the public interest.
A judge overseeing a landmark competition case against Apple and Google has questioned whether Apple’s US lawyers wrongly used court submissions in Australia to put pressure on Epic Games in Europe and justify temporarily removing its developer account.
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.
Apple has failed to prevent a funder from accessing data that will allow it to estimate potential damages in a class action it’s bankrolling over allegedly anti-competitive app store restrictions.
Google and Apple will argue at an upcoming trial that allegedly anti-competitive app marketplace restrictions were necessary to protect security and intellectual property.
BlueScope Steel is challenging a ruling that it pay a record $57.5 million penalty for engaging in attempted price fixing with flat steel distributors.
The High Court has granted defunct online educator Captain Cook College special leave to appeal a finding that it engaged in systemic unconscionable conduct by enrolling thousands of unsuitable students, who accrued $60 million in debt but never finished their courses.