Witness list released for Epic Games vs. Google antitrust lawsuit, Android father Andy Rubin may appear as a witness

Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, is fighting a legal battle on the grounds that practices in the App Store, an app store operated by Apple, violate antitrust laws. Epic Games is not only suing Apple for violating antitrust laws, but also filing a similar lawsuit against Google, which operates the smartphone app store Google Play. On November 6, 2023, a trial will be held in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and this trial will include Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Andy Rubin , known as the father of Android. You may appear in court as a witness.

The Epic v. Google witness list: Andy Rubin, Sundar Pichai, and more to testify - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/7/23907649/epic-v-google-antitrust-lawsuit-andy-rubin-sundar-pichai

Epic Games claims that app stores such as Apple's App Store for its own devices and Google's Google Play for Android devices collect excessive fees from app developers, violating antitrust laws. We filed a lawsuit against both companies.

In this lawsuit, Epic Games alleges that ``Google was afraid that major game publishers would distribute their games through ' sideloading '' without going through Google Play,'' and that some developers It has been pointed out that the company engaged in anti-competitive practices, such as giving back a few percent of Google Play's sales revenue.

Google took excessive measures against Epic Games because it was afraid that the ``direct DL'' method would spread to other publishers - GIGAZINE

Epic Games also claims that Google paid approximately 51 billion yen over three years to prevent major game companies from opening their own app stores.

Epic Games claims that ``Google paid 51 billion yen to prevent major game companies from opening their own app stores'' - GIGAZINE

In addition, in this lawsuit, Google was sanctioned by the court for ``destroying evidence'' and ``making multiple false reports.''

Google is sanctioned by court for ``destroying evidence'' and ``multiple false reports'' in lawsuit with Epic Games - GIGAZINE

Trial in this case will begin on November 6, 2023 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. On Thursday, October 5, the court released a provisional list of witnesses to be called at trial. According to the list, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and parent company Alphabet, Ruth Porat, CFO of Google and Alphabet, and Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, are expected to be summoned.

An additional 53 people are on the list of potential witnesses, including Andy Rubin, the creator of Android and co-founder of Essential. . Mr. Rubin worked at Google until 2014, but left the company after being accused of sexual harassment. According to reports, Rubin received $150 million (approximately 22 billion yen) in stock compensation from Google co-founder Larry Page at the time of his retirement without board approval. It has become clear.

Google granted a stock award of approximately 17 billion yen to Andy Rubin, who resigned due to sexual harassment allegations, without going through the board of directors - GIGAZINE

by Robert Scoble

However, since Mr. Rubin is only listed on the ``list of witnesses who may appear in court,'' there is a good chance that he will not take the stand.

Other people who may be called as witnesses in court include Android co-founder Nick Sears, who left Google in 2013, and Rich Miner, who is still working at Google at the time of writing. There is also his name.

Other participants include Armin Zelza, CFO of Activision Blizzard, who is said to have received money from Google in exchange for not opening its own app store, as well as telecom carriers, semiconductor manufacturers, and mobile device manufacturers around the world, centering on Google. Names such as Eric Chu, former head of the Open Handset Alliance, are also included in the ``list of witnesses who may appear in court.''

You can check the list of witnesses who may be summoned to the trial below.

show_temp.pl-2 - DocumentCloud
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24022278-show_temppl-2