Asian Tech Press (Nov 16) -- Google set up a task force to prevent Android users from downloading the popular game "Fortnite" outside its Google Play Store. Epic Games said in an unredacted court filing released Monday.

According to the legal filing, Google's actions helped it gain revenue from the game but ran counter to the idea that Android is an "open" platform.

According to the unaltered court filing, when Fortnite launched its direct download feature in August 2018 and offered distribution through Samsung's Galaxy Store, Google feared the momentum could spread even further. So Google launched a campaign to stop users from choosing a download option other than the Play Store.

Epic said in the filing, "Despite Google's public claims that Android is an 'open' platform when Google faces serious challenges from developers trying to distribute popular apps outside of the Google Play app store, Google executives take urgent steps to maintain Google's monopoly on Android app distribution."

The document cites internal Google emails that say those measures include the creation of a "Fortnite Task Force," which met daily in August 2018 to address challenges from Epic.

The task force found a theoretical vulnerability in the installer of Fortnite, which Epic says Google used as an excuse to scare users away from downloading Fortnite. At the same time, Google began deploying a media campaign to publish stories about the issue and blogged about it as "a severe security vulnerability," even though Google internally said it was "not a serious vulnerability."

In a statement, Google responded, "Epic's Android release of Fortnite has a security vulnerability that could compromise consumer data. Security and safety are our top priorities, so we are certainly taking steps to alert users to this security vulnerability in accordance with our app security policy. We will continue to fight Epic in court."

Epic initially filed its complaint last August, and in its countersuit, Google claims Epic violated the terms of its developer agreement.

A trial date is set for October 17, 2022.