Current:Home > ContactFederal judge orders Google to open its Android app store to competition -AssetLink
Federal judge orders Google to open its Android app store to competition
View
Date:2025-04-19 15:48:09
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge on Monday ordered Google to tear down the digital walls shielding its Android app store from competition as a punishment for maintaining an illegal monopoly that helped expand the company’s internet empire.
The injunction issued by U.S. District Judge James Donato will require Google to make several changes that the Mountain View, California, company had been resisting, including a provision that will require its Play Store for Android apps to distribute rival third-party app stores so consumers can download them to their phones if they so desire.
The judge’s order will also make the millions of Android apps in the Play Store library accessible to rivals, allowing them to offer up a competitive selection.
Donato is giving Google until November to make the revisions dictated in his order. The company had insisted it would take 12 to 16 months to design the safeguards needed to reduce the chances of potentially malicious software making its way into rival Android app stores and infecting millions of Samsung phones and other mobile devices running on its free Android software.
The court-mandated overhaul is meant to prevent Google from walling off competition in the Android app market as part of an effort to protect a commission system that has been a boon for one of the world’s most prosperous companies and helped elevate the market value of its corporate parent Alphabet Inc. to $2 trillion.
Google said in a blog post that it will ask the court to pause the pending changes, and will appeal the court’s decision.
Donato also ruled that, for a period three years ending Nov. 1, 2027, Google won’t be able to share revenue from its Play Store with anyone who distributes Android apps or is considering launching an Android app distribution platform or store. It also can’t pay developers, or share revenue, so that they will launch an app in the Google Play Store first or exclusively, and can’t make deals with manufacturers to preinstall the Google Play store on any specific location on an Android device. It also won’t be able to require apps to use its billing system or tell customers that they can download apps elsewhere and potentially for cheaper.
The Play Store has been earning billions of dollars annually for years, primarily through 15% to 30% commissions that Google has been imposing on digital transactions completed within Android apps. It’s a similar fee structure to the one that Apple deploys in its iPhone app store — a structure that prompted video game maker Epic Games to file antitrust lawsuits four years ago in an effort to foster competition that could help drive down prices for both app makers and consumers.
A federal judge mostly sided with Apple in a September 2021 decision that was upheld by an appeals court. Still, a jury favored Epic Games after the completion of a four-week trial completed last year and delivered a verdict that tarred the Play Store as an illegal monopoly.
That prompted another round of hearings this year to help Donato determine what steps should be taken to restore fair competition. Google argued that Epic Games was seeking some extreme changes, saddling the company with costs that could run as high as $600 billion. Epic contended Google could level the playing field for as little as $1 million. It’s unclear how much the changes ordered by Donato will cost Google.
Although Epic lost its antitrust case against Apple, Donato’s ruling could still have ripple effects on the iPhone app store as another federal judge weighs whether Apple is making it easy enough to promote different ways that consumers can pay for digital transactions. Apple was ordered to allow in-app links to alternative payment systems as part of U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ decision in that case, but Epic contends the provision is being undermined with the creation of another commission system that stifles consumer choice.
The forthcoming Play Store shakeup could be just the first unwelcome shock that antitrust law delivers to Google. In the biggest antitrust case brought by the U.S. Justice Department in a quarter century, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in August declared Google’s dominant search engine to be an illegal monopoly, too, and is now getting ready to start hearings on how to punish Google for that bad behavior. Google is appealing Mehta’s ruling in the search engine case in hopes of warding off a penalty that could hurt its business even more than the changes being ordered in the Play Store.
veryGood! (642)
Related
- Retirement planning: 3 crucial moves everyone should make before 2025
- Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis address criticism for sending character reference letters in Danny Masterson case
- 5 former London police officers admit sending racist messages about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, other royals
- Here's how to ask for a letter of recommendation (and actually get a good one.)
- Jay Kanter, veteran Hollywood producer and Marlon Brando agent, dies at 97: Reports
- Some authors will need to tell Amazon if their book used AI material
- Why the United Auto Workers union is poised to strike major US car makers this week
- 11 people injured after walkway collapsed during Maine Open Lighthouse Day
- Eva Mendes Shares Message of Gratitude to Olympics for Keeping Her and Ryan Gosling's Kids Private
- Here's how to ask for a letter of recommendation (and actually get a good one.)
Ranking
- Southern California rocked by series of earthquakes: Is a bigger one brewing?
- AP Top 25 Takeaways: Texas is ready for the SEC, but the SEC doesn’t look so tough right now
- 5 former London police officers admit sending racist messages about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, other royals
- Ocean cleanup group deploys barges to capture plastic in rivers
- How to watch new prequel series 'Dexter: Original Sin': Premiere date, cast, streaming
- Historic Cairo cemetery faces destruction from new highways as Egypt’s government reshapes the city
- 'Good Morning America' host Robin Roberts marries Amber Laign in 'magical' backyard ceremony
- Stock market today: Asian shares mostly higher as investors await US inflation, China economic data
Recommendation
Federal appeals court upholds $14.25 million fine against Exxon for pollution in Texas
BMW to build new electric Mini in England after UK government approves multimillion-pound investment
11 hurt when walkway collapses during Maine open lighthouse event
End may be in sight for Phoenix’s historic heat wave of 110-degree plus weather
Eva Mendes Shares Message of Gratitude to Olympics for Keeping Her and Ryan Gosling's Kids Private
Maldives presidential runoff is set for Sept. 30 with pro-China opposition in a surprise lead
Hurricane Lee updates: No direct hit expected, but rip currents headed to East Coast
How the extreme heat is taking a toll on Texas businesses