By Chris Skeldon 
In a dispute with Epic Games, the company must allow competing app stores on its operating system
In December, a federal jury in San Francisco concluded that… Google It violated antitrust law by charging high fees and strict rules on Epic Games and other app developers on the Play Store, the company's app store.
On Monday the 7th of this month, Judge James Donato, of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, ordered Google to make a series of changes to address its anti-competitive behavior. For three years, starting November 1, the company is expected to allow developers to bring their app stores into the mobile operating system. Android. It should also allow app makers to have their own billing systems outside of the Android ecosystem.
Google will have the right to charge developers “reasonable fees for these services,” which shall be based on the company’s actual costs. The judge acknowledged that the company would not be satisfied with its decision.
“Google’s modus operandi in this case was to flood the court with an ocean of comments, much of which was superficial and unsophisticated,” Judge Donato wrote in his ruling. He compared the scale of Google's arguments to a “terrible blunder.”
It was a victory for Epic, the maker of the game fortniteWhich is waging legal battles against Google and apple Since 2020 in an attempt to weaken the power of the giants over the app economy.
Epic asked the court to open up Google's Android system so it could offer its own app store while avoiding the company's rules and fees. Judge Donato's decision granted most of those requests but would still force Epic and other developers to pay Google for Android security. Content moderation services.
Google said it would appeal the decision.
“Epic’s ruling missed the obvious: Apple and Android are clearly competing,” Leigh-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, wrote in a blog post. “We will appeal and ask the courts to halt implementation of the solutions to maintain a consistent and secure experience for users and developers as the legal process progresses.”
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney celebrated the decision in a post on X.
“Great news!” he wrote. “The Epic Games Store and other app stores will be coming to the Google Play Store in 2025 in the US — without Google's scary screens and 30% fees — thanks to a victory in Epic v Google.” He pledged to continue the legal battle that his company is waging against Google in other countries.
Epic started the battle with Google in 2020 by allowing customers to make in-app purchases directly with Epic, bypassing Google and violating its rules. Google quickly banned Fortnite, and Epic responded by taking legal action.
The game developer was the latest plaintiff in a legal battle that already involved the dating app company Group match and prosecutors from all 50 U.S. states. Before the trial began, Google reached a settlement with Match, agreeing to return $40 million to the dating app company. It also agreed to pay $700 million to settle states' claims.
Epic largely lost its case against Apple, but a federal judge allowed the developer to give users the option to pay for its games outside of the company's iPhone App Store.
One of Epic's main goals in the lawsuit was to reduce the fees it paid to Google. In the Play Store, Google charges app makers a 15% fee for customer payments for app subscriptions and up to 30% for purchases made in popular apps downloaded from its store. Google claims that 99% of developers qualify for a tax of 15% or less on in-app purchases.
Under the order, Google will not be able to impose restrictions on how developers can compete on the Android platform for “payment, revenue share, or access to any Google product or service.”
Google will no longer be able to use these incentives to prevent app makers from telling users that they can purchase subscriptions outside of Google's billing system, for example. You'll also no longer be able to force phone makers to pre-install the Google Play Store in any specific location on the device's screen or prevent them from loading other app stores with those conditions.
App makers will also be able to share links with users that offer ways to download apps outside of the Google Play Store. Epic asked a judge to make it easier for Android device users to download apps from the open internet.
Google faces two other major antitrust lawsuits in the US, raising questions about different parts of its business, including one… A landmark case with the Department of Justice questions the dominance of its search engineWhich the company lost in August. The government is expected to present a list of possible solutions on Tuesday.
A second trial is scheduled to take place in the coming months before the Ministry of Justice regarding Google's market power in the field of advertising technology. Last week, Epic filed another lawsuit against Google and its Android partner Samsung, alleging that the two companies worked together to make it difficult for Epic to compete on the platform.
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