A US judge halted the order made early this month to overhaul the Play Store by November 1 on the case between Google and Epic Games.
The lawsuit started in 2020 when Epic Games who created Fortnite, sued Google claiming they had used their power to control the Android app store and harm developers and consumers. They argued that the Google Play Store restrained competition by becoming a monopoly, making deals with hardware companies and phone makers that use Android, and violating ant-trust laws to dominate the field. Epic also stated that Google makes it hard to use other app stores and payment processors, and restricts sideloading with security warnings.
On October 7, California Judge James Donato ordered Google to open the app store to competition. The court also restricted Google from paying fees and sharing revenue with companies to avoid competition on the app store. It is reported that Google Play takes about 15 – 30% of in-app purchases as a fee. The changes also included Google making its vast collection of Android apps available to any parties that wanted access and also distributing other options through Playstore.
Google filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit on Thursday, October 10 stating that the implementation of the October 7 court order poses great security risks. The fast implementation of the law will cause errors and failures in the Android platform. Google also stated that linking to external apps within Google Play is not safe for the user’s privacy and security.
The court order stay came out Friday, October 18, on the previously made court orders on October 7. The court denied Google’s request for a long court order stay and the current stay is only till there is a ruling by the federal appeal court in San Francisco.
The US District Court on October 7 implemented laws on Google Play for the next three years, that is till November 2027. This is mainly aimed at increasing competition as Google was labeled monopolistic by making deals that make Google Play the market leader and users should be encouraged to explore other stores and platforms as well.
The court also called for the creation of a three-person technical committee, with representatives of both parties, Google and Epic Games, to monitor and ensure that the law has been followed rightfully.
The Google spokesperson said they are pleased by the court’s decision as the remedies demanded are dangerous and a threat to the users of Google Play’s safe and secure experience and millions of Android users and app partners. They say that the Judge’s implementation of November 1 would harm the company and bring privacy risks to the Android ecosystem.
Most of the changes that were supposed to be implemented from November 1 will be paused, but one remains unchanged. Google cannot make deals on payments with phone providers for exclusive pre-installation of Play Store on devices. This rule will be implemented for three years till 1 November 2027.
Google has remained the leading platform that users rely on the most in various sectors, such as web search or other apps. Other lawsuits that Google is facing include the claim that it is unlawfully dominating the web search platform paying billions of dollars to remain the default search engine in various software ruled by the US District Judge Amit Mehta and its control over digital advertising technology for the antitrust trial in Virginia.
Google has been denying these allegations and strongly holds on say the privacy and protection it is providing for various Android platforms.
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