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Sean Hollister

Sean Hollister

Senior Editor

Senior Editor

    More From Sean Hollister

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “These numbers are really concerning to Google — Google doesn’t want to lose 60 million users to the iPhone every year.”

    Kravis spent a decent chunk of Google’s closing argument fighting against the idea that users won’t switch between iOS and Android and ended that section once again suggesting that even if the percentage of switchers is small, the absolute number is large.

    He also had a memorable line about the lag we’ve seen between apps appearing on iOS and Android: “What Purnima told you, and the evidence shows, is that app developers are like the rest of us. They have to prioritize, they have to decide which apps to build first.”

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “Because Apple and Google are in the same market, Google cannot have monopoly power.”

    That seems straightforward enough — if jurors decide that Apple vs. Google is the relevant market. Google’s attorney suggests that because Apple has 64 percent of app store revenues, period, Google is too small to have monopoly power.

    Now, he’s attempting to say that app stores are critical to phone buyers to the point that Apple competes with Google on that level:

    “They take it home, they turn it on, it’s got a lousy app store on it... you don’t need a PhD in economics to know what’s going to happen next... they’re going to buy another phone.”

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “PayPal and Stripe do not deliver apps to billion of consumers around the world.”

    Kravis is going fast and fierce.

    “Epic wants you to give them a deal they have not been able to get anywhere else... a deal that would effectively allow them to use the Play Store for free.”

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    Google: Android phones have been competing with Apple since the very beginning.

    Google’s attorney Jonathan Kravis is leading off its closing arguments, rather than Glenn Pomerantz — but he’s starting in the same place that Pomerantz’s opening arguments did.

    The visual aid:

    1) The Google Play Store competes with the Apple App Store

    2) Consumers and app developers have choices

    3) Epic has not shown that Google engaged in any anti-competitive conduct

    4) Epic wants to use Google Play for free.

    “What is this trial really about? Epic wants to use the Google Play Store for free,” says Kravis.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “Because Epic’s fighting a monopoly, everyone benefits if Epic wins.”

    Epic’s lead attorney says if Epic wanted to make money, it would have taken Google’s old deal. Never mind that Tim Sweeney suggested Epic would make more this way...

    We’re done with Epic and going straight into Google’s closing argument now.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    It amuses me that Epic’s visual aids suggest that jurors should check “yes” in each spot on the verdict form.

    It’s like Epic’s saying “here’s the right answer, go ahead and copy our homework!” I wonder if Google will do the same.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    Epic: “Fragmentation just means competition.”

    Epic’s lead attorney is striking through Google’s “justifications” one by one for its alleged monopoly power over Android: “Apple”, “Fragmentation”, and “Security.”

    He claims that fragmentation is no longer a justification because Android was “already the monopoly operating system in smartphones” by the time Google signed its most aggressive deals with OEMs and developers in 2018, 2019, and 2020. I’m not sure I agree, but it’s an interesting thought.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “Her market definition is so broad, so incomprehensible, it is, and I do not use this word lightly, absurd.”

    Epic’s lead attorney on Google’s optimal market definition for this case, the one that Professor Tucker brought up and the judge was broadly skeptical of in court.

    He’s pointing the jury to the very first question on their verdict form, where they get to decide if there’s a relevant antitrust market for this case. That’s important: if they choose that the market is anything other than Android app distribution and Android in-app payment solutions, Epic’s unlikely to win.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    Never mind, that was just a ploy to start talking about Google’s deleted chats.

    The screens were off for less than a minute before Bornstein began talking about (what’s admittedly the elephant in the room): Google’s deleted chats. The dark screens were a visual aid.

    “Google witness after Google witness after Google witness came in here and failed to give straight answers,” he says, adding that some testimony was contradicted by documents in this case.

    “As damning as the evidence is that we do have, the documents they deleted would have been even more damning,” Bornstein tells the jury.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    Epic’s closing argument is becoming a blur — whiplash between the screen and lead attorney Bornstein’s words.

    At the beginning, he had the jury’s full attention — they were looking directly at him. Now, they’re looking down at their monitors, up, around, and one keeps closing his eyes, as Epic tries to cram in lots of evidence we’ve seen before at the same time.

    It seems he knows this: “I want to go dark for a second,” he says, turning off the screens.

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