"Fortnite" maker Epic Games might be currently relishing the fact that a landmark antitrust ruling was in their favor against Alphabet Inc.'s Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG), but in 2021 a U.S. judge ruled in favor of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) on a similar case, raising the question that what was the difference between these two cases?
What Happened: In an interview with The Verge on Monday after the ruling against Google, Epic Games' CEO Tim Sweeney said "I would say Apple was ice and Google was fire."
He said that Apple's "antitrust trickery" was contained within the company. "They use their store, their payments, they force developers to all have the same terms, they force OEMs and carriers to all have the same terms."
On the other hand, Google, "to achieve things with Android," paid game developers, OEMs, and carriers to not compete. "When all of these different companies do deals together, lots of people put things in writing, and it's right there for everybody to read and to see plainly."
"I think the Apple case would be no less interesting if we could see all of their internal thoughts and deliberations, but Apple was not putting it in writing, whereas Google was," he stated about the difference between the two cases.
In a separate interview with CNBC, Sweeney highlighted another difference between the two companies saying Google's Android permits installing software from the internet via sideloading which Apple doesn't allow.
"The big difference between Apple and Google is Apple didn't write anything down. And because they're a big vertically integrated monopoly, they don't do deals with developers and carriers to shut down competition, they just simply block at the technical level," he said.
Why It's Important: Epic Games sued Google in 2020 alleging that the tech giant uses its dominant position in the market to make deals with phone makers and charge extra fees from consumers.
Google takes a cut of 15% to 30% from all digital stuff users buy through its store. Sweeney's company tried to avoid paying those fees by letting players make purchases in Fortnite directly from them, which led to Google kicking the game out of its store, resulting in the lawsuit.