Google Lost Its Antitrust Case With Epic Again

Google's effort to entreaty nan determination successful Epic v. Google has failed. In a newly released opinion, nan Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has decided to uphold nan original Epic v. Google lawsuit that recovered that Google's Play Store and costs systems are monopolies.

The determination intends that Google will person to abide by the remedies of nan original lawsuit, which limits nan company's expertise to salary telephone makers to preinstall nan Play Store, prevents it from requiring developers to usage its costs systems and forces it to unfastened up Android to third-party app stores. Not only will Google person to let third-party app stores to beryllium downloaded from nan Play Store, but it besides has to springiness those app stores "catalog access" to each nan apps presently successful nan Play Store truthful they tin person a competitory offering.

In October 2024, Google won an administrative stay that put a region connected immoderate of those restrictions pending nan results of this Ninth Circuit case. "The enactment mobility connected entreaty is denied arsenic moot successful ray of our decision," Judge M. Margaret McKeown, who oversaw nan case, writes.

"This determination will importantly harm personification safety, limit choice, and undermine nan invention that has ever been cardinal to nan Android ecosystem," Lee-Anne Mullholand, Google's Global Head of Regulatory Affairs, told Engadget. "Our apical privilege remains protecting our users, developers and partners, and maintaining a unafraid level arsenic we proceed our appeal." Google intends to entreaty nan Ninth Circuit's determination to nan Supreme Court.

The root of nan Epic v. Google suit was Epic's determination to circumvent Google's costs system via a package update to Fortnite. When Google caught wind, it removed Fortnite from nan Play Store and Epic sued. Epic pulled a akin gambit pinch Apple and nan App Store, though was acold little successful successful winning concessions successful that lawsuit — its awesome judicial occurrence location has been preventing Apple from collecting fees from developers connected purchases made utilizing third-party costs systems.