By Nico Grant
In December, a jury in San Francisco concluded that Google infringed on antitrust laws by levying excessive fees and strict guidelines on Epic Games and other developers within Google’s app store.
On Monday, Judge James Donato of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California mandated that Google implement several modifications to rectify its monopolistic practices. For a three-year period starting Nov. 1, the company is required to permit developers to introduce their own app stores on the Android platform. It must also allow app developers to implement their own payment systems, separate from the Android ecosystem.
Google is allowed to impose “a reasonable fee for these services,” which must align with Google’s actual expenses.
Donato recognized that Google would likely be displeased with his ruling.
“In this case, Google’s approach has been to inundate the court with a plethora of comments, many of which were superficial and underdeveloped,” he noted in his decision. He likened the volume of Google’s submissions to a “blunderbuss.”
This ruling marked a win for Epic, the developer behind the well-known game Fortnite, which has been engaged in legal disputes against Google and Apple since 2020 to diminish their control over the app market.
Epic sought the court’s intervention to break open Google’s Android ecosystem to provide its app store while circumventing the company’s regulations and fees. Donato’s order addressed most of those requests but still requires Epic and other developers to compensate Google for Android’s security and content moderation offerings.
On Monday, Google reaffirmed its intention to contest the jury’s ruling.
“The Epic verdict overlooks a crucial point: Apple and Android are undeniably in competition,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, stated in a blog entry. “We will appeal and plead with the courts to suspend the implementation of the remedies to ensure a consistent and secure experience for users and developers as the legal proceedings continue.”
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney celebrated the decision in a post on social media platform X.
“Great news!” he exclaimed. “The Epic Games Store and additional app stores will make their way to the Google Play Store in 2025 in the USA — free of Google’s warning screens and 30% app tax — thanks to our success in Epic v Google.”
He pledged to persist in his company’s legal struggle against Google in other nations.
Epic initiated the conflict with Google in 2020 by enabling consumers to conduct in-app purchases directly with Epic, bypassing Google’s processes and breaching its guidelines. Google swiftly banned Fortnite, prompting Epic to file a lawsuit.
The game developer emerged as the final plaintiff remaining in a legal battle that once included Match Group, the dating app company, and attorneys general from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Before the trial kicked off, Google reached a settlement with Match, agreeing to reimburse the company $40 million. It also committed to paying $700 million to resolve claims from the states.
Epic primarily lost its case against Apple, though a federal judge permitted the developer to offer users the option to purchase its games outside of Apple’s App Store.
One of Epic’s key objectives with the litigation was to lower the fees it paid to Google. On the Play Store, Google imposes a 15% fee on app subscriptions and up to 30% for transactions within popular applications that are downloaded from its store. Google claims that 99% of developers qualify for a 15% or lower fee on in-app purchases.
Following Donato’s ruling, Google will be unable to implement restrictions on how developers may compete on the Android platform in return for “a payment, revenue share, or access to any Google product or service.”
Google can no longer leverage those incentives to prevent app developers from informing users about opportunities to purchase subscriptions outside Google’s billing system, for instance. It can also no longer require device manufacturers to preinstall the Google Play Store in any designated area on a device’s interface or hinder them from loading alternative app stores under those conditions.
App developers will also have the freedom to share links with users that direct them to download applications outside of a Google app store. Epic had urged the judge to simplify the process for Android users to obtain apps from the open internet.
Google is currently facing two additional significant antitrust lawsuits in the U.S. that scrutinize various aspects of its operations, including a landmark case with the Justice Department that challenged the supremacy of its search engine, which the company lost in August. The government is expected to present possible remedies on Tuesday.
A separate trial with the Justice Department regarding Google’s market strength in advertising technology will conclude in the upcoming months. Just last week, Epic filed another lawsuit against Google and its Android partner Samsung, alleging that the two collaborated to make it more difficult for Epic to compete on the platform.
Donato commented on whether U.S. antitrust regulations can keep pace with the rapidly evolving tech sector.
“There has been a discussion about whether our technology-driven economy has surpassed the federal antitrust laws, which originated in 1890 with the Sherman Act,” he stated. “In the court’s assessment, it has not.”
