Federal judge orders Google to open its Android app store to competition

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge on Monday ordered Google to tear down the digital walls that protect its Android app store from competition as punishment for maintaining an illegal monopoly that has helped expand the company's Internet empire.

The preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge James Donato requires Google to make several changes that the Mountain View, California-based company had resisted, including a provision requiring its Play Store for Android apps to compete with competing app stores to consumers by third parties they can download to their phone if they wish.

The judge's order will also make the millions of Android apps in the Play Store library available to competitors, allowing them to offer a competitive selection.

Donato is giving Google until November to make the changes required by his order. The company had insisted it would take 12 to 16 months to develop the necessary protections to reduce the chances of potentially malicious software entering rival Android app stores and infecting millions of Samsung phones and other mobile devices that run the free Android software.

The court-ordered overhaul is intended to prevent Google from sealing off competition in the Android app market to protect a commission system that has been a boon for one of the world's wealthiest companies and helped boost the market value of its parent Alphabet Inc. to $2 trillion.

Google said in a blog post that it will ask the court to suspend the pending changes and will appeal the court's decision.

Donato also ruled that for a period of three years until November 1, 2027, Google will not be able to share revenue from its Play Store with anyone who distributes Android apps or the launch of a distribution platform or store for them Android apps into consideration. It is also not possible to pay developers or share revenue to launch an app first or exclusively on the Google Play Store, and no agreements can be made with manufacturers to launch the Google Play Store in a specific location on an Android device. Pre-install device. It also won't be able to require apps to use its billing system or tell customers they can download apps elsewhere and potentially at a cheaper price.

The Play Store has been making billions of dollars annually for years, largely through commissions of 15% to 30% that Google charges on digital transactions in Android apps. It's a similar fee structure to the one Apple uses in its iPhone App Store – a structure that led video game maker Epic Games to file antitrust lawsuits four years ago to encourage competition that could help drive prices down both for app manufacturers as well as for Apple consumers.

A federal judge mostly on Apple's side in a September 2021 decision that was upheld by an appeals court. Despite it, A jury favored Epic Games after completing a four-week trial that concluded last year and handed down a verdict that called the Play Store an illegal monopoly.

That's what led to this another round of hearings this year to help Donato decide what steps should be taken to restore fair competition. Google argued that Epic Games was seeking some extreme changes and cost the company up to $600 billion. Epic claimed Google could level the playing field for just $1 million. It's unclear how much the changes ordered by Donato will cost Google.

Although Epic lost its antitrust case against Apple, Donato's ruling could still have implications for the iPhone App Store as another federal judge weighs whether Apple is making it easy enough to promote different ways for consumers to pay for digital transactions. As part of U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers' decision in the case, Apple was ordered to allow in-app links to alternative payment systems. However, Epic claims that the provision is undermined by creating another commission system that limits consumer choice.

The upcoming restructuring of the Play Store could be just the first unwelcome shock that antitrust law has thrown at Google. In August, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found Google guilty in the Justice Department's largest antitrust case in a quarter century The dominant search engine is an illegal monopolyalso, and is now preparing to begin hearings on how to punish Google for this bad behavior. Google is appealing Mehta's ruling in the search engine case, hoping to stave off a penalty that could hurt its business even more than the changes ordered in the Play Store.