Fortnite maker Epic Games and Google say they end 5-year legal dispute over Android app store

Video game maker Epic Games has reached a “comprehensive agreement” with Google that could end its 5-year-old legal crusade targeting Google’s Play Store for Android apps.

Epic and Google revealed the settlement agreement in a joint legal document they filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco.

They said this would “allow the parties to put their differences aside while making Android a more dynamic and competitive platform for users and developers.”

Epic, which produces the hit online game Fortnite, scored a victory this summer when a federal appeals court upheld a jury verdict condemning Google’s Android app store as an illegal monopoly. The unanimous decision cleared the way for a federal judge to impose a potentially disruptive overhaul designed to give consumers more choice. Google suffered another blow in October when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to protect it from the judge-required overhaul of the App Store.

The specific terms of the settlement agreement remain under seal and must be approved by U.S. District Judge James Donato, but the two companies have outlined some of their agreements in their joint filing.

They said the settlement closely follows Donato’s October 2024 decision ordering Google to tear down the digital walls protecting its Android app store from competition. This included a provision that would require its app store to distribute competing third-party app stores so consumers could download them to their phones, if they wanted.

Google had hoped to overturn the changes through an appeal, but the July ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a blow to the tech giant, which was attacked in three separate antitrust lawsuits affecting different pillars of its Internet empire.

Epic Games filed lawsuits against Google’s Play Store as well as Apple’s iPhone app store in 2020 in an attempt to circumvent proprietary payment processing systems that charged commissions of 15-30% on in-app transactions. Tuesday’s proposed settlement agreement calls on Google to set certain limits on these payments.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney called the settlement a “brilliant proposal” in a social media post. Sameer Samat, president of Google’s Android division, said it will “focus on expanding developer choice and flexibility, reducing fees, and encouraging greater competition while keeping users safe.” Google previously complained that Donato’s forcing of more competition between app stores posed security concerns. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday.