Google's Android app store is an illegal monopoly – and now that has to change.
Today, Judge James Donato issued his final verdict Epic vs Googleand ordered Google to effectively open the Google Play app store to competition for three years. Google must distribute competing third-party app stores within Google Play, and it must allow competing third-party app stores access to the full catalog of Google Play apps unless developers individually opt out. These were Epic's biggest requests, and they're not all the ones Epic won today.
Judge Donato's injunction also prohibits Google from all sorts of other conduct that has been found to be anti-competitive – we're adding full details to this story now.
From November 1, 2024 to November 1, 2027, Google must also:
- Stop requiring Google Pay billing for apps distributed in the Google Play Store (the jury concluded that Google had illegally tied its payment system to its app store).
- Let Android developers inform users about other payment options in the Play Store
- Allow Android developers to link to ways to download their apps outside of the Play Store
- Let Android developers set their own pricing for apps, independent of Play billing
- Share app revenue “with any person or organization that distributes Android apps” or plans to open an app store
- Offer money or perks to developers to publish their apps exclusively or first on the Play Store
- Offer developers cash or perks if they don't publish their apps on competing stores
- Offer money or discounts to device manufacturers or carriers for pre-installing the Play Store
- Offer money or discounts to device manufacturers or carriers if you don't pre-install competing stores
Google will still have it some Control over security and protection by opening the Google Play Store to competing stores. The injunction states that Google may “take appropriate measures” that are “strictly necessary and narrowly tailored” and “comparable” to the way it currently monitors the Google Play Store. Google may also charge a fee for this monitoring.
Judge Donato gives Google eight months to develop a system in which a three-person technical committee, selected jointly by Epic and Google, will review all disputes.
Epic didn't quite get everything it asked for: it wanted the judge to open Google Play for six years, not three, to allow users to sideload apps with a single tap, and for Google to stop using Android APIs to bind to Google Play.
Epic Games originally sued Google on August 13, 2020 – the same day it also sued Apple. The game developer deliberately set a trap for both tech giants by trying to get around their 30 percent fee on in-app purchases with a surprise update to its hugely popular game Fortnite. Both tech companies responded with kicks Fortnite from their app stores, prompting a coordinated #FreeFortnite campaign and two lawsuits accusing both of them of creating illegal monopolies.
The Apple case is already over and Apple has mostly won: the Supreme Court rejected Epic's last appeal in January of this year. The only thing Epic was able to legally enforce there was an order overturning Apple's “anti-steering rules,” which theoretically allowed developers to freely tell their customers how to bypass Apple's payment systems. (I will not discuss the Apple case further than this brief overview because of ethical obligations.)
But the Google case took much longer to get off the ground, and it played out very differently. I spent over 15 days reporting live from the courtroom, and I saw time and time again how Epic showed that Google was afraid, didn't treat developers equally, and had something to hide.
The jury is in Epic vs Google was deeply convinced: Last December, there was a unanimous ruling that the Google Play App Store and the Google Play Billing Service were an illegal monopoly and that many of the special contracts with game developers and phone manufacturers constituted anti-competitive behavior.
In August, Judge Donato warned that Google would pay for its behavior. “We’re going to break down the barriers, it’s just the way it’s going to happen,” he said. In remedial hearings, he rejected Google's suggestions that meeting Epic's demands would require too much work, cost too much money, or be impossible to arrange without spending a lot of time.
It is still unclear whether Google will have to follow the court's demands immediately. Google has already promised to appeal the ruling – and like Apple, Google will likely ask the appeals court to put Judge Donato's order on hold while it tries its luck again. Apple has delayed changing its anti-steering rules for years with its legal appeals.
Epic filed a second lawsuit against Google (and Samsung) a week ago, arguing that the companies were already trying to get around this upcoming injunction by creating additional friction for third-party app stores. This case is related to this case and therefore Judge Donato will also hear it.