Google announced Friday that a federal judge in California will direct its Alphabet unit to overhaul its Android app store Play by Nov. 1 to give consumers more choice in how they download software. It announced that it had granted the request to suspend the order.
San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge James Donato issued the decision Friday as part of an antitrust lawsuit filed by Fortnite maker Epic Games against Google. Google argued that Donato's Oct. 7 injunction would harm the company and pose “significant safety, security, and privacy risks to the Android ecosystem.”
Google said Donato delayed the injunction to allow the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to consider a separate request by Google to suspend the judge's order.
Google said in a statement, “The Court of Appeals will review the district court's decision to temporarily halt implementation of the hazardous remedy requested by Epic as the Court of Appeals considers our request to further suspend the remedy pending appeal.” I'm satisfied with that.”
Epic did not respond to requests for comment.
In the Epic Games case, a jury found last year that Google has an illegal monopoly over how consumers download apps and pay for in-app transactions on Android devices.
The judge issued an order adopting many of the measures recommended by Epic in light of the jury's decision.
The order required Google to allow users to download competing third-party Android app platforms and the Play Store, and to use competing in-app payment methods.
It also prohibited Google from paying device manufacturers to pre-install the app store or from sharing revenue from the Play Store with other app distributors.
Google has already appealed the jury's antitrust findings to the Ninth Circuit. Google has not yet filed any antitrust claims with the appellate court.
The company has previously said that Play and Apple's App Store cannot be considered a monopoly because they are direct competitors, and that Donato's injunction would unlawfully force Google to do business with competitors. Ta.
