Google agreed to pay $360 mln to Activision to stop competition, Epic Games alleges - Reuters

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OAKLAND, Calif., Nov 17 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google has struck deals with at least 24 big app developers to stop them from competing with its Play Store, including an agreement to pay Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI.O) about $360 million over three years, according to a court filing on Thursday.

Google also agreed in 2020 to pay Tencent Holdings Ltd's <0700.HK> Riot Games unit, which makes "League of Legends," $30 million over one year in a similar deal, the filing stated.

The financial details emerged in a newly unredacted copy of a lawsuit "Fortnite" video game maker Epic Games first filed against Google in 2020 over allegedly anticompetitive practices related to the search giant's Android and Play Store businesses.

Google, Activision and Riot did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the new filing. But Google has previously said the lawsuit is baseless and has taken business conversations out of context.

Epic 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. read more

The Google agreements with developers were described in earlier versions of the lawsuit, but the exact terms had not been revealed.

The deal with Activision was announced in January 2020, soon after it told Google it was considering launching its own app store. Google around the same time was forecasting billions of dollars in lost app store sales if developers fled to alternative systems.

Epic's lawsuit alleged that Google knew signing with Activision "effectively ensured that (Activision) would abandon its plans to launch a competing app store, and Google intended this result." The agreement increases prices and lowers quality of service, the lawsuit added.

Reporting by Paresh Dave; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Richard Chang

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Paresh Dave

Thomson Reuters

San Francisco Bay Area-based tech reporter covering Google and the rest of Alphabet Inc. Joined Reuters in 2017 after four years at the Los Angeles Times focused on the local tech industry.

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