Judge orders Google Play to allow competition

U.S. District Court Judge James Donato ordered Google to end anti-competitive practices in its Google Play app store, following a lawsuit and verdict. Google plans to appeal and ask the courts to pause the judicial remedies in the case. Epic Games, the developer behind the mega-bestselling Fortnite video game, sued Google in 2020. Epic alleged Google’s restrictions on its app marketplace excluded many developers from reaching Android users unless they paid hefty fees to the company. A jury late last year decided that Epic was right and that Google had illegally excluded many app developers from its app store marketplace.

Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google vice president of regulatory affairs, wrote online that the verdict was flawed. Google’s Android, on which Google Play runs, clearly does compete with Apple, she wrote. The U.S. Justice Department has separately accused Apple of having a monopoly on smartphones.

What’s the timeline for this order? The order will take effect Nov. 1 and remain in place for three years. Within thirty days, Google and Epic must each appoint one member to the court-ordered technical committee. Those two members must then agree on the third member. Together all three members will help Google implement the court order.

So what does this new order do? The court ordered Epic and Google to assemble a three-person technical committee that would see Google take steps to follow the order’s stipulations:

• Google cannot make money off third-party app stores on its devices.

• Google cannot condition payment, or access to Android users, on whether developers use its Google Play app store.

• Google similarly cannot condition payment, or user access, on whether developers avoid using third-party app stores.

• Google cannot require manufacturers to preinstall Google Play on their devices.

• The company also cannot condition payment and revenue-sharing agreements with manufacturers on their refusal to preinstall third-party app stores on their devices.

• Google cannot require developers to use its Google Play billing system for in-app purchases.

• The company cannot prohibit developers from communicating about prices with users outside the confines of the Google Play store.

• Google must allow third-party app stores to access and provide for download all apps that are available in the Google Play store.

• Google cannot prohibit the proliferation of third-party app stores but can ensure they meet certain computer safety and security requirements.

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