Last week, Epic filed a new lawsuit against Google and Samsung in the Northern District of California for gatekeeping access to third-party app stores on Android devices. In a pretty swift decision, the court ruled in Epic’s favor and mandated that Google restructure its Play Store to allow third-party app stores access to the entire app catalog.
This development comes nearly ten months after the same court ruled that Google holds a monopoly in the Android app distribution market and in-app billing services.
Google will now be forced to allow third-party app stores to be publicly visible within the Play Store and operate freely. This means users will be able to download Epic’s own Games Store and other third-party stores directly from Google Play without the infamous “unknown app” scare screens that appeared previously.
There are additional changes but we should again specify that these will only apply to the US from November 1 for now and for a specified duration of three years.
Developers can bypass Google Play’s billing system (and the 30% app tax) and inform users of alternative payment solutions. In addition, developers will be able to freely link users to download options outside of the Play Store. It’s also important to note that developers can opt out of these changes if they choose to.
The court ruling also explicitly prevents Google from offering device makers or carriers any form of money or perks to deter them from pre-installing third-party app stores on devices. Google is also not allowed to contact developers to prevent them from launching apps on rival app stores.
Google will be allowed to implement “reasonable security measures” as it opens up the Play Store and will be allowed to charge a fee for those services. Disputes for these cases will be overseen by a specialized technical committee appointed by Google and Epic.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs has already confirmed that her company plans to appeal the court’s decision so we can expect more developments in this saga.
