Google must crack open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

Today, Judge James Donato issued his last ruling in Epic v. Google, ordering Google to efficaciously unfastened up the Google Play app store to contention for 3 full years. Google volition person to administer rival third-party app stores wrong Google Play, and it indispensable springiness rival third-party app stores entree to the afloat catalog of Google Play apps — unless developers opt retired individually. These were Epic’s biggest asks, and they’re not each that Epic has won today.

Judge Donato’s imperishable injunction besides blocks Google from each sorts of different behaviour that was recovered anticompetitive, excessively — we’re adding afloat details to this communicative now.

Epic Games originally sued Google connected August 13th, 2020 — the precise aforesaid time it sued Apple, too. The crippled developer sprung a premeditated trap connected some tech giants by attempting to bypass their 30 percent interest connected in-app purchases with a astonishment update to its mega-popular crippled Fortnite. Both tech companies retaliated by kicking Fortnite disconnected their app stores, lone to beryllium met by a coordinated #FreeFortnite enactment run — and a brace of lawsuits accusing each of creating amerciable monopolies.

The Apple lawsuit is already over, and Apple mostly won: the Supreme Court rejected Epic’s last appeal this January. The lone happening Epic legally achieved determination was an bid dismantling Apple’s “anti-steering rules,” theoretically letting developers freely archer their customers however to bypass Apple’s outgo systems. (I won’t sermon the Apple lawsuit much than this little outline, since I’m ethically bound.)

But the Google lawsuit took acold longer to footwear off, and it went precise differently. I spent implicit 15 days reporting unrecorded from the courtroom, and I saw Epic amusement clip and again that Google was moving scared, that Google doesn’t dainty developers equally, that Google had thing to hide.

The assemblage successful Epic v. Google was thoroughly convinced: past December, it reached the unanimous verdict that the Google Play app store and Google Play Billing work were an amerciable monopoly, and that galore of the peculiar deals it made with crippled developers and telephone manufacturers were anticompetitive behavior.

In August, Donato warned that Google would wage for its behavior. “We’re going to teardrop the barriers down, it’s conscionable the mode it’s going to happen,” helium said. In remedy hearings, helium rejected Google’s suggestions that gathering Epic’s demands would instrumentality excessively overmuch work, oregon outgo excessively overmuch money, oregon were intolerable to put without taking important time.

It’s not yet wide whether Google volition person to instantly travel the court’s demands. Google has already promised to entreaty the verdict — and similar Apple, Google volition apt inquire that appeals tribunal to property intermission connected Judge Donato’s bid portion it tries its luck again. Apple spent years delaying the anti-steering rules change with its ineligible appeals.

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