A lawsuit from Epic Games alleges that Google paid Activision Blizzard to not compete with the Google Play Store.
The headaches continue for Activision Blizzard as the company faces regulatory pressures regarding its proposed $68.7 billion deal with Microsoft. Epic Games alleges in a lawsuit that Google struck a deal with the publisher to prevent competition.
Reuters reports:
Alphabet Inc’s Google has struck at least 24 deals with big app developers to stop them from competing with its Play Store, including an agreement to pay Activision Blizzard Inc about $360 million over three years, according to a court filing on Thursday.
Google also agreed in 2020 to pay Tencent Holdings Ltd’s Riot Games unit, which makes “League of Legends,” about $30 million over one year, the filing stated.
The financial details emerged in a newly unredacted copy of a lawsuit that “Fortnite” video game maker Epic Games first filed against Google in 2020. It alleged anticompetitive practices related to the search giant’s Android and Play Store businesses.
Both Google and Activision Blizzard have denied the allegations. In a statement to Reuters, Activision said that “Google never asked us, pressured us, or made us agree not to compete with Google Play.” They called Epic’s allegations “nonsense.”
