Judge Bends Google Over the Barrel in Final Epic v. Google Ruling

Sean Hollister, writing for The Verge:

Google’s Android app store is an illegal monopoly — and now it will have to change. Today, Judge James Donato issued his final ruling in Epic v. Google, ordering Google to effectively open up the Google Play app store to competition for three whole years. Google will have to distribute rival third-party app stores within Google Play, and it must give rival third-party app stores access to the full catalog of Google Play apps, unless developers opt out individually.

These were Epic’s biggest asks, and they might change the Android app marketplace forever — if they aren’t immediately paused or blocked on appeal. And they’re not all that Epic has won today. Starting November 1st, 2024, and ending November 1st, 2027, Google must also:

  • Stop requiring Google Play Billing for apps distributed on the Google Play Store (the jury found that Google had illegally tied its payment system to its app store)
  • Let Android developers tell users about other ways to pay from within the Play Store
  • Let Android developers link to ways to download their apps outside of the Play Store
  • Let Android developers set their own prices for apps irrespective of Play Billing

If this ruling holds on appeal, it’s a real loss for Google, not a token loss.

Update: Regarding the bit in the first paragraph above, about rival app stores getting access to all apps in the Play Store unless the developers opt out, I was originally confused how this could possibly work. I should have read the injunction first. It states:

For a period of three years, Google will permit third-party Android app stores to access the Google Play Store’s catalog of apps so that they may offer the Play Store apps to users. For apps available only in the Google Play Store (i.e., that are not independently available through the third-party Android app store), Google will permit users to complete the download of the app through the Google Play Store on the same terms as any other download that is made directly through the Google Play Store. Google may keep all revenues associated with such downloads. Google will provide developers with a mechanism for opting out of inclusion in catalog access for any particular third-party Android app store. Google will have up to eight months from the date of this order to implement the technology necessary to comply with this provision, and the three-year time period will start once the technology is fully functional.

This is far less radical a dictum than Hollister’s description led me to believe. What Judge Donato is demanding is effectively pass-through to the actual Play Store listing for any apps and games that aren’t available in a third-party app store. So if you search in the Brand X app store for “FooApp” but FooApp isn’t available in the Brand X store, Brand X’s store app can let you install and download FooApp from the Play Store. But that counts as a regular Play Store installation. It’s just a way to encourage users of third-party stores to search those stores first, even though the vast majority of apps will likely remain exclusively in the Play Store.

★ Monday, 7 October 2024