(Bloomberg) — Google says that Epic Games Inc.’s attempt to market its blockbuster Fortnite game last year outside the internet giant’s mobile-app store created a security risk.
“When Epic first made its Android version of Fortnite available for download, the app included an extremely serious security flaw in the first Fortnite installer for Android that could allow other apps installed on the targeted devices to manipulate installation process and load malware,” the Alphabet Inc. unit said in a court filing Monday. “It was Google that identified the security flaw.”
Epic separately sued Apple Inc. and Google last year, accusing them of maintaining a duopoly on mobile-app distribution with their app stores. Apple’s business model that includes collecting a commission from app developers was largely vindicated in a judge’s ruling in September following a trial with Epic in May, though the judge did somewhat loosen Apple’s grip on its App Store rules.
The Google case isn’t as far along. Just as Apple did, Google is now bringing counterclaims against Epic.
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