Google to Seek Reversal of Judge’s App Store Order

Google and Epic Games will reportedly be in court Monday (Feb. 3) as Google seeks a reversal of a judge’s order that it allow rival app stores with its Play store.

The 2023 jury verdict and October 2024 judge’s order that Google aims to overturn resulted from an antitrust case brought by Epic Games, Reuters reported Monday.

Epic Games launched its lawsuit in 2020, alleging that Google monopolized access to apps on Android devices and payments made within apps, according to the report.

The judge’s order delivered in October required Google to make a number of changes to restore competition, the report said.

In its appeal of that ruling, Google has argued that its Play store competes with Apple’s App Store, that the judge unfairly allowed Epic Games to tell jurors that Google and Apple are not competitors, and that the judge was wrong to issue an order that affects not just Epic but users and developers nationwide, per the report.

Epic said, per the report, that it will “fight to ensure that the jury’s verdict and the court’s injunction are upheld and Google is held to account for its anticompetitive behavior.”

The court could rule on the appeal later this year, and the decision could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to the report.

When the judge’s order was announced in October, Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said in a post on X that Epic’s victory in the lawsuit meant that the Epic Games Store and other app stores would come to the Google Play Store in 2025 in the U.S., “without Google’s scare screens and Google’s 30% app tax.”

Google said in a blog post that it would appeal the verdict and ask the courts to pause the implementation of the judge’s remedies, pending the appeal.

“As we have already stated, these changes would put consumers’ privacy and security at risk, make it harder for developers to promote their apps, and reduce competition on devices,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president, regulatory affairs at Google, said in the post.

When the antitrust jury trial kicked off in November 2023, reports said it could reshape the Android app store landscape.