A judge is considering proposed changes to Google’s Android app store to prevent anti-competitive tactics

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Google is trying to deal with the latest in a series of legal attacks on its digital empire on Thursday, as a federal judge began looking into anticompetitive practices in the Android smartphone app market.

The trial in San Francisco before U.S. District Judge James Donato comes five months after a nine-person jury decided that Google had turned its Play Store for Android phone apps into an illegal monopoly following a four-week trial in an antitrust case brought by Epic Games. . creator of Fortnite.

At the beginning of the trial, Donato told lawyers on both sides not to return to the jury’s verdict, which is now “carved in stone.” He also said that the case is “about competition in general” and that he is “not looking for relief that will only extend a helping hand to Epic.”

The verdict gave Epic a chance to persuade Donato to impose sweeping restrictions and other changes to the way Google manages the distribution of Android apps. These apps let you use a wide range of services on virtually any phone that isn’t made by Apple.

During Thursday’s hearing, Donato listened to experts on both sides argue about Epic’s proposed radical changes to the Google app store. Under Epic’s key proposals, Google would be required to make all Android apps available to rival stores in the Play Store, as well as distribute competing app stores directly to consumers who want to download them. Essentially, it would have to put competing app stores in its own app store to increase the competitors’ chances of being discovered by consumers.

Epic says this would help level the playing field for new and smaller competitors because Google’s app is powered by a network effect – it has the dominant app and the most users.

These measures will eventually expire, although it is unclear when. Epic proposed six years, but it was unclear whether Donato would allow it. Six years, he said, “seems like an awful long time to me.”

Google — which, as Donato noted, filed 90 pages of objections to Epic’s proposal earlier this month — argued that its network effect advantage existed long before it gained monopoly power.

Epic also wants Donato to prohibit Google from requiring automatic installation of the Play Store on Android phones and to establish an oversight committee that will ensure compliance with the new order.

In court documents ahead of Thursday’s hearing, Google argued that Epic’s proposals would have a chilling effect on the Play Store and do more harm than good to consumers and Android app developers.

During the hearing, Donato appeared skeptical of this argument, saying that while Google appears to be assuming a dark, dystopian future “without any evidence,” if Epic has its way, “there is an equally reasonable probability that it will be the best thing that has ever happened.” , so it is a value-neutral choice.”

In response to Google’s argument that competing, unscrupulous app stores could violate consumer privacy, Donato said the tech giant had no data to support that claim and asked if it was “any different than what Google is already doing?”

While Google predicts a “terrifying world of chaos and anarchy” if Epic’s proposals are implemented, Donato said: “I just don’t buy it.”

In his opinion, this is a consequence of violating antitrust regulations.

“You’re going to repair the damage, and that means (you may) have a less-than-ideal situation from a competitive standpoint for the recovery period,” he said.

Like Apple with its iPhone app store, Google makes billions of dollars a year in the Play Store for Android apps thanks to a commission system that charges a fee of 15% to 30% on various digital transactions. Epic and other popular app makers such as Spotify and Match Group are attacking these app commissions, calling them an abusive tactic that harms both consumers and themselves.

Epic is pressuring Donato to require Google to ban many of the practices that have allowed the Play Store to suppress alternatives to the Play Store that would charge much lower commissions, which could help lower prices and foster more competition, which could result in more innovation.

Donato did not issue a ruling Thursday, but said closing arguments in the case would likely be in August.

Google is trying to minimize upheaval in the lucrative Android ecosystem just weeks after its lawyers delivered closing arguments in an even more serious antitrust case involving dominant Google search engine. A ruling in this case filed by the U.S. Department of Justice is not expected until late summer or fall of this year.

In the Play Store case, Google says a number of concessions it made as part of a $700 million settlement reached in another antitrust case brought by attorneys general across the United States have already provided more competition.

The settlement, reached before Epic went to court, will pay at least $2 to each of the more than 100 million affected consumers while requiring Google to lower barriers that hinder competing options for accessing the Play Store.

Epic, which derided the lawyers’ settlement as ineffective, is seeking stricter measures that would handcuff Google and make it easier for rival app stores to connect with consumers with Android phones.