[2] Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, had been outspoken about this 30% fee, believing that storefronts could significantly reduce this while still being profitable.

[5] Epic released Fortnite Battle Royale for computers and consoles in 2017 as a free to play title supported by microtransactions, allowing players to buy in-game "V-bucks" currency for cosmetic items.

When Fortnite was brought to mobile devices in 2018, Epic initially released the game through sideloading as to avoid giving Google any revenue from in-game sales.

[6] On August 13, 2020, Epic initiated "Project Liberty", a plan developed by Sweeney to challenge the 30% revenue fees on Google's and Apple's stores.

[14] The Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear the subsequent appeals, leaving Rogers' order to Apple in place.

[22] While the jury trial was pending, Google was sued in July 2021 by a coalition of 36 states and the District of Columbia over its app store practices, mirroring several of the complaints Epic had filed under.

Among these included what was known as "Project Hug", an effort to work with twenty mobile publishers, including Activision, Aniplex, Bandai Namco, Bethesda, Blizzard, Com2uS, EA, King, Mixi, Niantic, NCSoft, Netmarble, NetEase, Nexon, Nintendo, Pearl Abyss, The Pokémon Company, Riot, Square Enix, Supercell, Tencent, and Ubisoft, as to keep their games and apps within the Play Store, with hundreds of millions of dollars used to maintain this agreement.

[28] Similarly, a "Project Banyan" referred to a deal made with Samsung Electronics as to weaken the impact of their Galaxy Store on Android devices.

[28] Epic also discovered that Google had made a number of sweetheart deals with specific apps to avoid or reduce Play Store or the User Choice Billing fees, such as with Spotify and Netflix.

The jury affirmed that Google had engaged in anti-competitive practices both with the Play Store and its related billing system, and maintained its monopoly through how it made deals with partners using its dominant position in the overall technology market.

The jury also found that Google furthered its position by requiring the Play Store to be installed on third-party Android hardware such as Samsung phones.

[31] Judge Donato issued his ruling on October 7, 2024, which included a permanent injunction on Google to allow for alternative app stores on Android by November 1, 2024.