Islamabad, Oct 8: Google Required to Allow More App Stores Beyond Play Store for Android. In a new legal defeat for the internet giant, a US judge on Monday ordered Google to make its Android OS available on competing app marketplaces.
The order is the outcome of Google’s loss in an antitrust lawsuit filed by Epic Games, the producer of Fortnite, where a jury in California determined that Google had an unlawful monopoly due to its Google Play Store. In December, a San Francisco jury found in favor of Google after only a few hours of deliberation, concluding that the firm had engaged in a number of illicit tactics to preserve its monopoly on the Android app store.
Google has filed an appeal of the judgment, which comes after a similar defeat in August when another judge determined that Google’s dominant search engine was likewise an unconstitutional monopoly. In a third federal case in Virginia, Google is also being sued for antitrust violations due to its dominance in internet advertising.
As per the court judgment, Google will not be allowed to carry out any of the various practices that the jury found to be anti-competitive for the next three years. These limits include revenue sharing with potential competitors and requirements that developers launch apps solely on the Play Store. A three-person Technical Committee has also been mandated by the court to supervise the reforms’ implementation and settle any disagreements that may come up.
This injunction poses a serious threat to Google’s hegemony in the Android app market and has the potential to drastically alter the mobile app market in the years to come. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney advised companies to grasp this chance “to build a vibrant and competitive Android ecosystem with such critical mass that Google can’t stop it.” Not only will the reforms only apply to the US, he said, but he also promised that “the legal and regulatory battle will continue around the world.”
