Federal District Court Judge Orders Google to Permit Competitors on App Store

army judge

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Poster's comment: This is good news for Android users and game/app developers.
I'm happy to see that Alphabet received a "smack down"!


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U.S. judge Monday ordered Alphabet's Google to overhaul its mobile app business to give Android users more options to download apps and to pay for transactions within them, following a jury verdict last year for "Fortnite" maker Epic Games.

The injunction by U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco outlined the changes Google must undertake to open up its lucrative app store, Play, to greater competition, including making Android apps available from rival sources.

Donato said at an earlier hearing that he would establish a three-person compliance and technical committee to implement and monitor the injunction.

Epic's lawsuit, filed in 2020, accused Google of monopolizing how consumers access apps on Android devices and how they pay for in-app transactions.

The Cary, North Carolina-based company persuaded a jury in December 2023 that Google unlawfully stifled competition through its controls over app distribution and payments, paving the way for Donato's injunction.

Google had urged Donato to reject Epic's proposed reforms, arguing they were costly, overly restrictive and could harm consumer privacy and security. The judge mostly dismissed those arguments during an August hearing.

"You're going to end up paying something to make the world right after having been found to be a monopolist," he told Google's lawyers.

In a separate antitrust case in Washington, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on Aug. 5 ruled for the U.S. Justice Department and said Google had illegally monopolized Web search, spending billions to become the internet's default search engine.

Google also began a trial in September in Virginia federal court in a Justice Department lawsuit over its dominance in the market for advertising technoly.

Google has denied the claims in all three cases.


 
Losing it's crushing dominance in the area of online ads is the case Google really doesn't want to lose. That made up about 76% of revenue last quarter.

As for the Google Play, the decision today indicates how the case against Apple might go for its App store case. Google Play and Apple are the two that have by the largest sales of apps and the 30% they take from any digital product sales is a big source of revenues for both companies.
 
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