Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai is set to be summoned by Epic Games Inc. to testify in an antitrust trial over Google Play policies, according to Court filings Sundar Pichai will testify in an upcoming antitrust trial regarding Google Play’s policies which could potentially impact billions of dollars in the app marketplace revenue, reported Bloomberg.
Epic Games is a video game and software development business. They provide a digital environment in which creators may create, distribute, and administer games and other material.
According to Court filings, Pichai and Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney have been among the listed witnesses in a trial scheduled to commence on November 6 in a San Francisco federal court. This trial will scrutinize whether Google Play’s policies are unlawful and prevent competition. The dispute originated when Epic sued Alphabet’s Google in 2020, alleging that the distribution, payment, and fee policies of its app store violated the law.
In Re Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation, case number 21-md-02981, is filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (San Francisco).
This court dispute is part of a larger antitrust struggle in which roughly three dozen state solicitors general, customers, and Match Group Inc. have all accused Google of monopolistic activity.
In addition to the Google Play trial, Pichai is slated to testify in the coming weeks in the current Washington trial, in which the US Justice Department accused Alphabet of maintaining a monopoly in online search.
Alphabet has conditionally resolved consumer and state attorney general allegations claiming that Google Play misused its power over Android mobile apps. The settlement’s particular terms were not revealed in court records. This agreement, if ratified, would reduce the scope of the lengthy antitrust fight, centering the court battle on Epic and Match’s accusations that Google exploited its dominant position to squash competition in the Android app distribution industry.
According to court records from September 5, Epic’s attorneys aim to question Pichai for an hour during the trial on a variety of issues, including Android business practices and Google’s partnerships with cellular carriers and mobile device makers. Google’s legal team may potentially summon Pichai for a 30-minute deposition to defend its app marketplace standards.
Both Epic and Google’s legal teams want to call Sweeney, with each expecting him to testify for 90 minutes. Sweeney’s testimony will include Epic’s Games Store operations as well as the company’s dealings with Google Play and Android.
