Google must allow third-party app stores to have access to its Play Store catalog in the United States

The federal judge in charge of the trial between Epic Games and Google has ruled that it will be obliged to open to third-party stores in the United States for the next three years, so that they can have access to the Play Store application catalog and can download them under the same conditions as if they did so from their own platform.

This ruling is part of the case that has pitted the technology company against the video game developer since August 2020, when the former withdrew Fornite from the Play Store after the studio introduce an independent payment system.

Epic Games sued both Google and Apple – which also removed said title from its application store, App Store – under an accusation of monopoly in the distribution of its applications in its stores. Then, the study highlighted that both companies abused the benefits obtained from the commissions they charged developers every time they downloaded one of their services.

The technology company, for its part, countersued to Epic in October 2021for understanding that it had breached the contract to distribute Fornite in the Play Store. According to Google, this agreement had not prevented it from obtaining benefits from other forms of distribution. For example, through the Galaxy App store, which is already pre-installed on Samsung devices.

In December of last year, the jury unanimously determined that Google Play and its billing service exhibited monopolistic behavior. With this ruling, the judge in charge of the case, James Donato, had to determine a series of measures that Google had to comply with to stabilize the situation.

ABRIR GOOGLE PLAY STORE

The magistrate has now issued a court order indicating what Google’s obligations will be to promote competition in this regard, which it must follow to comply with what the regulation requires.

Firstly, the technology company will be obliged to open itself to third-party stores, that is, it must allow other alternative stores to have access to its catalog of ‘apps’ and be able to download them. in the same conditions than downloads made directly from the Play Store.

Google will also not be able to force developers to use the billing system it offers in applications distributed through its official store or prohibit alternative payment methods within the Play Store. On the other hand, you must allow developers determine the prices of your servicesas well as including external links that allow you to download your applications outside of your official store.

The ruling also prohibits the technology company from sharing income generated through the Play Store with any person or entity that distribute Android ‘apps’ or that can reward developers to launch their applications first in their own store or make them exclusive to it.

As for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), Google will not be allowed to offer them benefits to include the Play Store by default or compensate them financially for not installing third-party app stores.

Finally, the judge determines that Google will have up to eight months to implement the technology and procedures necessary to comply with said provision within a period of three years, which will begin to run once it has applied these measures and will foreseeably conclude. November 1, 2027.

GOOGLE APPEALS THE SENTENCE

Google has confirmed that it has appealed Judge Donato’s ruling and that it will ask the courts to stop the implementation of “measures to maintain a consistent experience and safe for users and developers”, as stated in a publication shared on its official blog.

In this sense, the vice president of Regulatory Affairs of the firm, Lee-Anne Mulholland, has pointed out that the changes ordered by the Court “would put the privacy and security of consumers at risk.” Likewise, developers would find greater difficulties in promoting their services.

On the other hand, he has stressed that, although these modifications “presumably satisfy Epic”, they will not benefit American consumers, developers and device manufacturers; and has suggested that its situation is very different from Apple’s.

Thus, the directive has clarified that, unlike iOS, Android is positioned as an open platform “that has always allowed flexibility options”, such as different application stores and side loading.

With this appeal to the judge’s decision, which “is based on an erroneous finding that Android is a market in itself,” the technology giant defends that it will be shown that Apple and Google compete in the same market for consumers and developers .

“Android phones from companies like Samsung, Motorola and many others compete right next to Apple’s iPhone,” as can be seen in any store that sells smartphones, he noted. “People choose between these phones based on price, quality and security,” he adds.

Mulholland has also said that this decision “ignores what every developer in the world knows,” which is that they must prioritize the investment of time and money they make in designing services for each platform.

For this reason, and so that they “offer their best features” for their operating system and publish them first on Android, has created tools and executed training programs aimed at these professionals. “Apple, of course, does the same thing: competing to convince developers to prioritize iOS,” he noted.

Likewise, it considers that by appealing to the Court, Google will be able to demonstrate that Google Play is not the only way to obtain applications for Android, because the majority of devices with this operating system incorporate by default “two or more stores” and that the Developers also have other options, such as offering their ‘apps’ directly to users from their websites.

In this sense, he gave as an example the case of the distribution of Fornite, which has been available to all Android users through the Samsung Galaxy Store or Epic Games Store “while it was not distributed through Google Play.” “These are options that developers have never been able to offer their American users on iPhone,” he concluded.

From Epic GamesHowever, they have described Judge Donato’s announcement as a “victory” and They consider it to be “good news”“that its app store and other third-party apps reach Google Play in 2025 “without Google’s scare screens or the 30 percent app tax,” in the words of its founder and CEO, Tim Sweeney.

The manager has also anticipated that, although this court order is currently applied exclusively in the United States, “the legal and regulatory battle will continue around the world”, as he explained in his X profile.