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Google seeks to undo Epic Games antitrust win over app store (techxplore.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Alphabet Inc.'s Google is asking a federal appeals court to throw out a ruling in an antitrust case brought by Fortnite-maker Epic Games that would force the search giant to overhaul its Play mobile app store.

[...]

A San Francisco jury concluded in December 2023 that Google violated antitrust law by blocking rival app stores through a series of revenue-sharing agreements with mobile device makers like Samsung. Following up with a fix in October, Donato ordered Google to allow developers to set up app marketplaces and offer consumers billing options other than its own payment system.

Alphabet Inc.'s Google is now asking a federal appeals court to throw out a ruling in an antitrust case brought by Fortnite-maker Epic Games that would force the search giant to overhaul its Play mobile app store.

[...]

Epic first sued Google and Apple in August 2020, accusing them of blocking competition for rival app stores. The judge in the Apple case largely ruled against Epic, though she directed the iPhone maker to make some changes to its App Store rules. Epic and Apple are currently fighting in an Oakland federal court over whether the iPhone maker is abiding by that ruling.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (7 children)

I just want to play games.

Edit: On a more serious note, I am actually a bit on Googles side here. Because everyone can actually install an alternative store. It's like asking Steam to add an installer for GOG and Epic Games Store in the Steam store. There is no technical limitation on the smartphones why anyone could not install alternative stores or software. The lack of installed alternative stores right from the start is not a fault of Google, but the phone manufactures who did not put these by default.

Overall, am I wrong with my observation? I really think Google is not at fault for this particular thing.

[–] dracs 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The reason that Google got ruled against originally was that they were paying and offering incentives to developers to keep them from releasing their apps on other app stores.

Google also doesn't support a user installing the Play Store themselves (and the required Google Play Services dependency). So phone manufactures have to choose to include it on everybody's phone from the get go, or their users won't be able to use it at all.

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