Epic Games, the developer behind Fortnite and several other renowned online games, has initiated legal action against Google, alleging that the latter is unjustly monopolizing Android app distribution. The gaming company's lawsuit comes with a pretrial motion to limit mentions of Epic's second largest shareholder being based in China during the trial scheduled for Nov. 6 start.
In the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the plaintiff's request was partially granted with a ruling allowing only one mention of Tencent Holding Ltd.'s domicile. "Google may ask a witness once about Tencent’s domicile," stipulates the court document. Any further references will be excluded from proceedings.
Tencent is Epic Games' second-largest shareholder behind founder and CEO Tim Sweeney, who holds majority stock, according to The Motley Fool. While Sweeney possesses more than half of Epic Games’ stock, Tencent’s stake lies at approximately 40%.
Epic Games CEO and Founder Tim Sweeney (left) and Tencent CEO Ma Huateng ("Pony Ma")
| Creative Commons Attribution 2.0, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
According to Statista data from 2022, Tencent topped the list as the largest publicly traded Chinese company holding an approximate market value of $414.3 billion USD.
PC Games Insider reported earlier this year that the Chinese government intended to obtain a "golden share" in Tencent. A "golden share" traditionally refers to a one percent stake plus additional rights including a potential board seat and veto power over business decisions.
Foreign Policy reported that a former CIA official claimed Tencent received funding from Chinese Ministry of State Security shortly after its inception. FP’s 2020 report said that Chinese businesses are obligated by law to fulfill requests from intelligence and security agencies in China. William Evanina, U.S counterintelligence official underscored how Chinese tech companies “play a key role” in processing data acquired by China's government, providing crucial support for China’s intelligence services.