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.
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.
Epic [Games] last year mostly lost a similar case against Apple Inc (AAPL.O), the other leading app store provider. An appellate ruling in that case is expected next year.
The Google agreements with developers are part of an internal effort known as “Project Hug” and were described in earlier versions of the lawsuit without the exact terms.
The remuneration includes payments for posting to YouTube and credits toward Google ads and cloud services.
Google at the time forecast billions of dollars in lost app store sales if developers fled to alternative systems.
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