A US judge on Monday ordered Google to open up its Android smartphone operating system to rival app stores, a new legal blow to the tech giant.
The order is the result of Google’s defeat in an antitrust case brought by Fortnite-maker Epic Games, where a California jury decided that Google exercises illegal monopoly power through its Android Play Store.
It took only hours for a San Francisco jury in December to reach a verdict against Google, finding that the company had employed various illegal strategies to maintain its App Store monopoly on Android phones.
The order, which Google is appealing, follows a similar setback in August when a different judge found that Google’s world-leading search engine was also an illegal monopoly.
Google also faces an antitrust lawsuit in a third federal case in Virginia over its dominance of online advertising.
Under the Epic Games order, Google will be prohibited for the next three years from engaging in a number of practices that were deemed anti-competitive by the jury in the landmark case.
These restrictions include sharing revenues with potential competitors and requirements for developers to launch apps exclusively on the Play Store.
The judge has also ordered the formation of a three-person technical committee to monitor the implementation of the changes and resolve any disputes that may arise.
This injunction represents a significant challenge to Google’s dominance in the Android app ecosystem and could reshape the mobile app landscape for years to come.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney urged companies to take advantage of this opportunity “to build a vibrant and competitive Android ecosystem with such a critical mass that Google can’t stop it.”
He also underlined that the changes would only apply in the US, but pledged that “legal and regulatory battles will continue around the world.”
– Google’s appeal –
Google said it would appeal the injunction and also demand that it be lifted pending the outcome of its ongoing legal challenge.
The judge said that the order is effective from November 1, time has been given till July 1 to implement some provisions.
“We will continue to advocate for what’s best for developers, device makers, and the billions of Android users around the world,” said Lee-Anne Mulholland, the company’s vice president of regulatory affairs.
Phones running the Android operating system account for about 70 percent of the world’s smartphone market.
Smartphone companies can install the Android app for free, provided that the Play App Store is on the home page and other Google offerings are already installed.
The jury found that Google acted illegally to ensure that the Google Play app store was the only means of paying for third-party apps like Fortnite and other games.
A large portion of the App Store’s revenue comes from video games, and Epic Games has long sought to make payments for its mobile games, such as Fortnite, outside of the Google or Apple App Store, which account for up to 30 percent. Take commission.
Epic mostly lost a similar case against Apple, where a different US judge largely ruled in the iPhone maker’s favor.
Apple and Google regularly argue that their App Shop commissions are industry-standard, and that they pay for benefits such as accessibility, transaction security, and removing malware.
Google also argued that the agreement with smartphone makers helped Android-powered devices compete better against Apple’s iPhone.
But testing revealed that Google generates billions of dollars in revenue through the App Store.
To preserve its one-stop-shop for apps, Google paid smartphone makers a cut of their revenues in exchange for maintaining the Play Store as the exclusive gateway.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
