Google’s loss was swift after a monthlong antitrust trial in a San Francisco federal court. A little more than three hours after a jury had begun deliberating on Monday, they returned with their verdict.
There were 11 antitrust claims that Epic Games, the maker of the hit video game Fortnite, had brought against Google’s Play Store for Android mobile devices, and the jury found Google to be at fault in every one of them.
It was the first test of how Google might fare in the antitrust gauntlet it faces in the United States — and the company was routed. The courtroom loss could portend Google’s legal fate in two, more significant antitrust cases in the United States that could weaken the world’s most influential internet business and reshape the tech industry for years to come.