Judge Won’t Reverse Google’s Antitrust Ruling on Play Store

Amid all the AI ​​drama, Google is also grappling with another issue. It’s been embroiled in a legal battle with Epic Games over how the Google Play store should operate. Ultimately, a court ruled in Epic Games’ favor, and Google did everything it could to overturn the ruling. Well, according to a new report, a judge refused to overturn Google’s antitrust ruling.

To catch up with you

Here’s a recap of the drama. Epic Games has been on a warpath for the past few years. In 2020, the company filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the company was operating an illegal monopoly in the iOS/iPadOS app market. That fire eventually spilled over to Google, as Epic sued Google for the same thing.

Epic (and pretty much every developer) doesn’t like the fact that the company charges developers a 30% fee on all in-app purchases. Apple does the same thing with its payment system. This is made worse by the fact that Google forced all Android developers to use Google’s payment system last year. This means that Android apps can’t use third-party payment systems; developers are forced to hand over 30% of their revenue.

Like Apple and the App Store, most people download apps from Google’s own app store. What sets these companies apart is that Google has allowed people to sideload their apps either through third-party app stores or through direct APK installs. The problem is that Google posts alarming notifications warning people that sideloading apps could put their phones at risk. These notifications are displayed even when the app is safe.

For these reasons, Epic is targeting these companies. It wants to bring about a radical change to the mobile app market as a whole.

Ordinance

In a surprising turn of events, the court ruled in Apple’s favor in its case, but not in Google’s. Keep in mind that these rulings came from different judges. As part of the ruling, Google will have to make some major changes to the way the Play Store works. For starters, the company will have to stop posting “scare screens” when people try to download an app. It will also have to allow developers to use the payment system of their choice. That would give users a way to avoid the absurd fees. Google has opposed these demands, but its complaints have fallen on deaf ears.

Court will not reverse Google’s antitrust ruling

As it stands, Google’s Play Store has been deemed an illegal monopoly, so changes will have to be made. We don’t know when those changes will happen. We do know that Google wants them to never happen. The company is doing everything it can to overturn the ruling. According to the report, U.S. District Court Judge James Donato denied Google’s motion to overturn the ruling. The company “failed to present a good basis for a judgment as a matter of law or for a new trial,” the judge said in the 28-page ruling.

As part of its argument, Google referenced another ruling Apple received for essentially the same case. While Google must make sweeping changes, Apple managed to avoid Scott’s punishment. “Google used every opportunity to tell the jury that Google and Apple compete with each other and therefore should be considered to be operating in the same market.” That’s true, since both companies were responsible for questionable practices and both have equal influence over their markets. However, Donato wrote that Epic presented significant evidence “showing that Android-only markets make economic and factual sense in this case.”

Google has also opposed scary screens

The company also spent time arguing for the ruling that scare screens were anti-competitive. The ruling came from a judge alone, but Google argued that a jury would disagree on the anti-competitive nature of side-loading warnings. Like everything else in the case, Google’s claim was dismissed.

Google claims that this is a security measure, and that’s not wrong. When you sideload apps, you risk installing malware on your system. Sure, you risk that in the Play Store, but the risk is greater outside of the Play Store. The problem is that Google’s tactic is to scare people away from sideloading apps. It doesn’t matter if the app is safe, you’ll still get a warning.

Epic wants Google to make side-loading apps a one-tap experience without any additional screens. It also wants to prevent Google from blocking pre-installed apps on phones. We’re sure that last part depends more on device manufacturers than on Google as a company, though.

Is this correct?

So Google threw a tantrum and yielded no results. The changes Epic has proposed could help Android app developers by giving them a wider choice of payment systems. They could avoid the hefty 30% fee on the Play Store. Plus, people wouldn’t be discouraged from sideloading apps on their phones. That’s a bit subjective, since you’re exposing yourself to some risk by doing so.

These are good things, but the real problem comes in the fact that Apple and Google have received different rulings. While Apple is dealing with its own changes, the court ruled in favor of the Cupertino company. Both Google and Apple have their app markets by the throats and are doing everything they can to squeeze every penny out of their developers and users. Developers have to give a large portion of their revenue to both companies, and both are crushing freedom.

So why does one company have to get off easy? When presented with evidence that both companies were using the same moves, Judge Donato simply dismissed the claims. In fairness, both Google and Apple are villains in this story, so both should be punished equally.