Google’s Android app store is an illegal monopoly — and now it will have to change.
Today, Judge James Donato issued his final ruling in Epic v. Google, ordering Google to effectively open up the Google Play app store to competition for three whole years. Google will have to distribute rival third-party app stores within Google Play, and it must give rival third-party app stores access to the full catalog of Google Play apps, unless developers opt out individually. These were Epic’s biggest asks, and they’re not all that Epic has won today.
Starting November 1st, 2024, and ending November 1st, 2027, Google must also:
- Stop requiring Google Pay Billing for apps distributed on the Google Play Store (the jury found that Google had illegally tied its payment system to its app store)
- Let Android developers tell users about other ways to pay from within the Play Store
- Let Android developers link to ways to download their apps outside of the Play Store
- Let Android developers set their own prices for apps irrespective of Play Billing
- Share app revenue “with any person or entity that distributes Android apps” or plans to launch an app store
- Offer developers money or perks to launch their apps on the Play Store exclusively or first
- Offer developers money or perks not to launch their apps on rival stores
- Offer device makers or carriers money or perks to preinstall the Play Store
- Offer device makers or carriers money or perks not to preinstall rival stores
Google will still have some control over safety and security as it opens up the Google Play Store to rival stores. The injunction says that Google can “take reasonable measures” that are “strictly necessary and narrowly tailored” and are “comparable” to how it currently polices the Google Play Store. Google will be able to charge a fee for that policing, too. Epic has repeatedly argued that Google should not be able to deter third-party app stores through policing.
Judge Donato is giving Google eight months from now to come up with a system, with a three-person Technical Committee jointly chosen by Epic and Google reviewing any disputes.
Epic didn’t get quite everything it asked for: it wanted the judge to crack open Google Play for six years, not three, allow users to sideload apps with a single tap, and for Google to stop being able to tie Android APIs to Google Play.
