A federal judge in California on Monday ordered Google to authorize the installation of competing platforms in its Google Play Store application store, a snub for the technology giant, which will appeal.
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This sentence was handed down almost ten months after a jury found Google guilty of monopolizing the market for the distribution of applications on Android, its mobile operating system, ruling in favor of video game publisher Epic Games. , at the origin of the procedure.
San Francisco magistrate James Donato gave the technology giant eight months to comply with his decision, i.e. by early July 2025, because the judgment will become effective on November 1.
Once the Alphabet subsidiary has modified Android and Google Play Store to allow downloads from other application stores, it will have to leave the door open for three years.
Judge Donato also prohibited Google from taking part of the revenue generated by alternative stores, or from requiring a developer to launch their application on the Google Play Store first or only.
It also prohibits contracts with equipment manufacturers or telephone operators providing for the default installation of Google Play Store on their smartphones for remuneration.
As soon as the judgment was announced, the general manager of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, indicated that the publisher would launch its own application store in 2025, “without the messages from Google to scare and the 30% levies” that the technology giant takes from the income of application creators.
This launch will only take place in the United States, because the decision published on Monday only concerns the American territory.
“The legal and regulatory battle will continue around the world,” explained Tim Sweeney.
“Risks” for users
The period set by the federal judge gives three years to developers, operators and manufacturers of smartphones to “build an ecosystem of sufficient size so that Google can no longer stop it”, at the end of this first phase, urged the boss from Epic Games.
“These changes would present risks to data protection and user security,” Google responded in a press release, announcing that it would appeal.
“If they satisfy Epic, they will cause a series of unintended consequences which will be unfavorable to American consumers, developers and equipment manufacturers,” insisted the company based in Mountain View (California).
Google specified that it would ask the courts to suspend the execution of the judgment pending the examination of the appeal.
Epic Games wants to prevent smartphone manufacturers from forcing application developers to use their download platforms as well as their payment systems, which allows them to charge significant commissions in the process.
The creator of the hit game Fortnite obtained, in 2021, a US federal judge to force Apple to authorize an alternative payment system within its App Store.
But the magistrate also considered that Epic Games had not provided enough evidence to demonstrate that Apple had contravened competition law.
In addition to the favorable judgment in December 2023, several laws have been adopted around the world in recent years to limit the control of technology giants over the smartphone ecosystem.
In 2021, South Korea enacted a law forcing Apple and Google to open their operating systems to alternative payment systems.
In Europe, the regulation on digital markets, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which came into force in March, is forcing the six largest global tech players to open their platforms to competition.
At the end of September, Epic once again sued Google, as well as the South Korean mobile equipment manufacturer Samsung, before the Californian civil courts, which it accuses of blocking the download of its application outside the official stores of the two groups.
