Ten months after Epic Games’ victory against Google in the US court, that declared that Google has an app monopoly, the final ruling of the case will force Google to allow third party app stores on Android.
Judge James Donato has issued a permanent injunction lasting three years from November 1, 2024, that will force Google to allow the distribution of rival third-party app stores within the Google Play Store in the USA.
Not only that, these app stores will have access to the Google Play Store’s catalog of apps, so every app (unless they specifically opt out) could be available from every app store, giving choice to users to download apps from anywhere they want.
Google will also be prohibited to pay developers to launch their apps exclusively on the Play Store, and will let third-party deveolpers set their own ways to pay from within the Play Store, instead of forcing them to use Google Play Billing.
Epic Games has been asking for these changes since the Fortnite developer sued both Apple and Google in August 2020. The Apple case was perhaps more well-known to the public and ended in defeat for Epic, but the Google case took longer to develop and ended in December 2023, with the jury unanimously agreeing Google had been unlawfully maintaing an app monopoly on Android.
Now, this ruling puts in practice those findings, that will “level the playing field for the entry and growth of rivals, without burdening Google excessively”, wrote judge Donato (thanks, The Verge).
The jury found that due to Google’s policies it was impossible for any third party to launch a viable app store for Android, even for giants like Amazon. Google even entered agreements with other companies like Samsung to install auto-blockers.