A U.S. judge on Monday ordered Alphabet Inc.’s Google to provide Android users with more options for app downloads and in-app transactions on mobile apps, in response to last year’s jury decision against Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite. The judge mandated a thorough review of Google’s business practices. The injunction by U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco outlines the changes Google must make to open up its lucrative Play app store to more competition, including making Android apps more accessible from competitive sources.
According to Donato’s order, Google is prohibited from restricting the use of in-app payment methods for three years and must allow users to download alternative third-party Android app platforms or stores.
The order also prevents Google from paying device manufacturers to pre-install the app store and from sharing revenue from the Play Store with other app distributors.
Alphabet’s shares dropped by 2.2% after the ruling. Donato stipulated that Epic and Google must establish a three-person technical committee to oversee the injunction. Each party will select one person, and those two members will jointly choose the third person.
Google announced plans to appeal the verdict that prompted the injunction and may seek to suspend Donato’s order with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
The injunction will take effect on Nov. 1 to allow Google time to adjust to its current contracts and practices, as Donato stated.
In a lawsuit from 2020, Epic accused Google of monopolizing access to apps and in-app transactions on Android devices. Epic argued in December 2023 that Google was anti-competitively controlling app distribution and payments, leading to Donato’s injunction. Google had opposed Epic’s reforms, claiming they were costly, excessively restrictive, and could compromise consumer privacy and security, but the judge rejected most of these arguments in August.
After newsletter promotion
He told Google’s lawyers that “as soon as you discover that you’re a monopoly, you’re going to pay some kind of price to make the world a better place.”
In a separate antitrust case in Washington, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled on August 5 that Google must pay billions of dollars to become the Internet’s default search engine, as he found Google had monopolized web searches unlawfully. Google also faced a trial in September in Virginia over its dominance in the advertising technology market.
Google has denied the claims made in all three lawsuits.
Source: www.theguardian.com
