US judge: “Monopolist” Google cannot avoid app store reforms

By Mike Scarcella

August 14 – A US judge said on Wednesday that he wanted to issue an injunction to force Alphabet’s Google to give Android users more options for downloading apps, but not to interfere in the technology giant’s business down to the smallest detail. In doing so, he followed a jury verdict from last year for “Fortnite” maker Epic Games.

U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco heard from technology experts and lawyers for Epic and Google about proposed reforms in the blockbuster antitrust case.

Donato expressed impatience with Google’s protests about the cost and difficulty of implementing many of Epic’s proposals and hinted that he would issue a rule that would give users and developers maximum flexibility in downloading and distributing apps outside the Play Store.

“After you’re exposed as a monopolist, you ultimately have to pay something to put the world back in order,” Donato said.

He said his injunction would be about three pages long and would ensure that Google knew the “rules of the road.”

Donato said he would make a decision in the coming weeks and establish a three-member compliance and technical committee to implement and monitor the injunction.

“Google has shut out competition for years. Now we are opening the door and letting competitors in,” said Donato.

Google declined to comment and Epic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Epic’s lawsuit accuses Google of monopolizing the way consumers access apps on Android devices and how they pay for in-app transactions.

The Cary, North Carolina-based company convinced a jury in December 2023 that Google’s controls on app distribution and payments illegally hindered competition.

Epic has asked Donato to compel Google to make it easier for Android users to download apps from third-party app stores like Epic and other Internet sources, and to prohibit Google from automatically installing its Play Store on Android devices.

Google denied that it would harm competition and told Donato that Epic’s proposals would make it “nearly impossible” for the Alphabet subsidiary to compete and would jeopardize consumer privacy and security.

Google lawyer Glenn Pomerantz told Donato on Wednesday that Google should not be forced to displace its competitors’ app stores. “Competition gets worse when you impose an obligation to negotiate with your competitor,” Pomerantz said.

Epic’s attorney, Gary Bornstein, asked the court to order Google to quickly enforce its injunction.

Google faces another threat to its business practices in a separate government lawsuit in Washington, DC, challenging the company’s dominant search engine.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled for the U.S. Justice Department, saying Google illegally monopolized web search and spent billions to become the Internet’s default search engine. Google has denied the allegations.

Mehta has scheduled a hearing for September 6 to discuss a timeline for the court to impose remedies against Google in the case.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications.