The Supreme Court has declined to protect Google from a year-old order requiring significant changes to its Android app store, paving the way for increased competition against a system that a court declared an illegal monopoly in Fortnite maker Epic Games’ antitrust case against the internet giant.
Bloomberg reports that in a decision on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant Google’s request for protection from a lower court order that mandates a major restructuring of its Android app store. The order, issued by U.S. District Judge James Donato in October of last year, aims to foster greater competition in the app marketplace dominated by Google’s Play Store.
Breitbart News previously reported that Epic Games, developer of the popular Fortnite video game, declared “total victory” over Google when the Silicon Valley giant’s appeal was denied in August:
In a major setback for Google, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling on Thursday that will force the tech giant to change its restrictive Google Play app store policies. The unanimous decision affirms an injunction previously issued against Google in its ongoing antitrust battle with Epic Games, the maker of the popular Fortnite video game.
The injunction, which was put on hold pending Google’s appeal, will now take effect, compelling Google to allow app developers to set up alternative in-app payment systems and app stores within the Google Play ecosystem. The ruling deals a significant blow to Google’s control over its Android app marketplace.
Under the terms of the order, Google must provide its competitors with access to its entire inventory of Android apps and allow these alternative options to be downloaded directly from the Play Store. The tech giant had sought a stay from the Supreme Court while it pursued a final attempt to overturn a December 2023 jury verdict that found the Play Store to be an abusive monopoly.
Google had argued that complying with the order would expose the Play Store’s more than 100 million U.S. users to “enormous security and safety risks” by enabling the proliferation of stores that could potentially stock malicious, deceptive, or pirated content. The company also claimed that it faced an October 22 deadline to begin implementing the changes if the Supreme Court did not grant its request for a stay.
In a statement following the Supreme Court’s decision, Google said it would continue its legal battle while reluctantly submitting to what it believes is a problematic order. The company warned that the changes ordered by the U.S. District Court could jeopardize users’ ability to safely download apps.
The order stems from an antitrust lawsuit filed by video game maker Epic Games against Google in 2020. The month-long trial in San Francisco federal court culminated in a jury’s monopoly verdict, which found that Google’s conduct had enabled it to reap billions of dollars in annual profits, primarily through its exclusive control of a payment processing system that collected a 15-30 percent fee on in-app transactions.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, in a post following the Supreme Court’s decision, applauded the move for clearing the way for consumers to choose alternative app payment choices “without fees, scare screens, and friction.”
While the Play Store changes are likely to impact Google’s profits, the company’s primary revenue streams come from its digital ad network, which is anchored by its dominant search engine. These pillars of Google’s internet empire have also come under legal scrutiny, with both the search engine and parts of its advertising technology being declared illegal monopolies in cases brought by the U.S. Justice Department.
Read more at Bloomberg here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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