In the latest legal blow, Google ordered the opening of the Android app store

The news

Google must open the Android app store Google Play to competitors for at least three years, a US judge ruled on Monday. The ruling is the latest legal blow to the tech giant, which has already had two antitrust cases filed against it this year.

The decision comes after video game developer Epic Games successfully sued Google in December 2023, arguing that the company's App Store rules and payment policies resulted in it holding an illegal monopoly and inviting competition from rival developers and stores on its devices suppressed. Google will appeal the ruling.

Shares in Google parent company Alphabet fell after the verdict and were down 2.44% at Monday's close, but rose slightly again after trading.

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The app ecosystem could change significantly

The latest court decision may have put the Apple-Google app store duopoly — which generates $200 billion a year and “dictates how billions of consumers use mobile devices” — in serious trouble, Bloomberg noted. “The dominoes are going to start falling here,” said the CEO of Epic Games, which had sued Google, at the time. That prediction may be starting to come true: Monday's ruling, which blocked Google from giving app makers financial incentives to favor the Google Play Store over others, could lead to mobile app stores outside of the Google and Apple ecosystem is gaining popularity, noted The Verge.

How did Google lose a case so similar to Apple's?

Epic Games also sued Apple over its App Store rules – but while Google lost, Apple won against the video game developer in 2021. The discrepancy between the two decisions is notable, The Verge wrote, but there are differences in the way the two stores operate. While Apple owns and controls its App Store, Google builds its ecosystem within Android by striking deals with phone makers if they agree to favor Google's apps and APIs. By presenting some of these deals, Epic's lawyers appeared to be able to more clearly argue that they were unfair. The Google trial also took place before a jury rather than a judge, which could potentially complicate matters for the search engine giant.

The US government is conducting a “parade” of lawsuits against Big Tech

Google has had a difficult year in the US courts: At the beginning of the year, a judge declared its search business an illegal monopoly, and the company is also facing antitrust proceedings over its advertising business. Google isn't alone — the government is pursuing a “parade” of federal lawsuits aimed at reining in the power of Big Tech, the New York Times found. In September 2023, the Federal Trade Commission and 17 states sued Amazon for favoring its own marketplace, while Apple faces an antitrust lawsuit from the Justice Department over its dominance in the smartphone industry. The FTC also sued Meta in 2020, arguing that the company created a monopoly over social media platforms with its purchase of messaging platform WhatsApp.