Epic alleges that Google has been engaged in illegal price-gouging by collecting commissions ranging from 15% to 30% on in-app digital transactions.

Google is ‘crooked’ and a bully, CEO of Fortnite-maker Epic Games testifies in Play Store trial::Epic alleges that Google has been engaged in illegal price-gouging by collecting commissions ranging from 15% to 30% on in-app digital transactions.

  • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.eeEnglish
    18·
    1 year ago

    I wholeheartedly believe google is breaking the law to maximize profits, but I also feel like this headline is designed to make it seem as though the people suing are just butthurt and that their primary complaint is that they don’t like google personally and feel that their opinion as to whether google is kind and nice should be legally actionable.

    • Chakravanti@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      23·
      1 year ago

      No, seriously. Fuck google. Go FOSS or take your shitty closed source fucking scam and go to fucking hell. To everyone else, Take the pennies you pay and support the writers and the REAL hosters and not the infamous title stealing hedgemon scamper spies.

      Discard closed source anything or you deserve the inevitable end of the world happening TO-FUCKING-DAY

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        91·
        1 year ago

        Seriously, I actually agree with what they’re arguing in the lawsuit, but it’s one of those “worst person you know manages to make a good point” situations. You don’t want to actually agree with them, because you understand they have ulterior motives for having that position.

        Despite Google being the bad guy in this, I certainly do not fucking want a shit-ass company like Epic to fucking win.

  • honey_im_meat_grinding@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    93·
    1 year ago

    You don’t have to support Epic’s ultimate goal of increasing their profit, to understand that the monopoly power this lawsuit is fighting is even worse. Apple and Google should not be able to gatekeep what kind of apps we get to use - any argument in favour of them basically boils down to “they let us avoid malicious apps” but you can have democratic orgs decide that instead of oligarchical cartels. And I don’t necessarily mean the government, although government regulation would be a welcome move, I mean even more democratic:

    In Finland, some of the largest grocery chains (think Walmart) are collectively, democratically owned - in other words, they operate in the same boring, stable, functional, and efficient manner as other grocery shops without being undemocratic(!). The average Finnish person has say in what products are being stocked, can be elected managers of stores, and the coop gives members 5% of their spending back (i.e. revenue sharing), among other things. [1] For reference, in the UK, we get a measly 1% back from grocery shop purchases, or from Amex with their cashback.

    Sure, Epic won’t give us this democratic org, but they do help us challenge the gatekeepers that are way more invested in working against giving us anything like this.

    [1] https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2023/10/11/inside-the-walmart-of-finland/