A US judge on Monday ordered Alphabet’s Google to overhaul its mobile app business to give Android users more options to download apps and pay for transactions within them, following last year’s jury verdict against Fortnite maker Epic Games.
The ban by US District Judge James Donato in San Francisco outlined changes Google must make to open up its lucrative app store, Play, to more competition, including making Android apps available from competing sources.
Donat’s order states that Google cannot prohibit the use of in-app payment methods for three years and must allow users to download competing platforms or third-party Android app stores.
The order prohibits Google from paying device manufacturers to pre-install their app store and sharing revenue generated from the Play Store with other app distributors.
Google said in a statement that it will appeal the ruling that led to the ban to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and will ask the US courts to stay Donato’s order pending the appeal.
“Ultimately, while these changes likely satisfy Epic, they will cause a number of unintended consequences that will hurt American consumers, developers, and device manufacturers,” Google said.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney announced on social media platform X on Monday that Donato’s order was “big news” and said that its Epic Games Store and other app stores will come to Google Play in 2025.
Sweeney said app developers, store makers and others have three years “to build a vibrant and competitive Android ecosystem with such a critical mass that Google can’t stop it.”
Shares of Alphabet fell 2.5 percent to $164.39 (roughly Rs. 13,803) on Monday, following the verdict. Donato said Epic and Google must establish a three-person technical committee to enforce and oversee the ban. Epic and Google each get a pick, and those two members will pick a third person.
Donato said his ban would take effect on Nov. 1, which he said would give Google time to “harmonize its current contracts and practices.”
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 convinced a jury in December 2023 that Google illegally stifled competition with its controls over app distribution and payments, paving the way for Donat’s ban.
Google urged Donato to reject Epic’s proposed reforms, arguing they are expensive, overly restrictive and could harm consumer privacy and security. The judge largely rejected those arguments during a hearing in August.
“You end up paying something to make the world right after you’re found to be a monopolist,” he told Google’s lawyers.
In a separate antitrust case in Washington, US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled in favor of the US Justice Department on August 5 and said Google had illegally monopolized web search, spending billions to become the internet’s default search engine.
Google also began trial in September in Virginia federal court in a Justice Department lawsuit over its dominance of the ad technology market.
Google has denied the claims in all three cases.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
(This story was not edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)