US judge orders Google to open app store to competitors | Technology News

A US judge said Google must allow users to download competing Android app platforms or third-party stores for three years.

A US judge has ordered Alphabet's Google to overhaul its mobile app business to give Android users more options for downloading apps and paying for transactions within them. This follows a jury verdict last year for Fortnite maker Epic Games.

U.S. District Judge James Donato's injunction in San Francisco on Monday outlined the changes Google must make to open its lucrative Play app store to greater competition, including making Android apps available from rival sources.

Donato's order said Google must not ban the use of in-app payment methods for three years and must allow users to download from competing third-party Android app platforms or stores.

The order prevents Google from making payments to device makers for pre-installing its App Store and from sharing Play Store revenue with other app distribution partners.

Epic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Following the ruling, Alphabet shares closed 2.5 percent lower at $164.39 on Monday. Donato said Epic and Google would need to establish a three-person technical committee to implement and monitor the injunction. Epic and Google each get one pick, and those two members pick the third person.

Google is appealing

Google said in a statement that it will appeal the ruling that led to the injunction to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and ask U.S. courts to stay Donato's order pending an appeal.

“While these changes are likely to satisfy Epic, they will ultimately have a number of unintended consequences that harm American consumers, developers and device manufacturers,” Google said.

Donato said his injunction would take effect on Nov. 1, which he said would give Google time to “reconcile its current agreements 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 was unlawfully stifling 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, saying they were costly, overly restrictive and could harm consumer privacy and security. The judge largely rejected those arguments during a hearing in August.

“You're going to end up paying something to put the world back to order after you're found to be a monopolist,” he told Google's lawyers.

In a separate antitrust case in Washington, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled in favor of the U.S. Justice Department on Aug. 5, saying Google illegally monopolized Web search and spent billions to become the Internet's default search engine.

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

Google has rejected the claims in all three cases.