Last week Epic submitted a new lawsuit against Google and Samsung in the Northern District of California over gatekeeper access to third-party app stores on Android devices. In a fairly quick decision, the court ruled in Epic’s favor and ordered Google to restructure its Play Store to give third-party app stores access to its entire app catalog.
This development comes almost ten months after the same court ruled that Google holds a monopoly in the distribution market for Android apps and in-app billing services.
Google will now be forced to allow third-party app stores to be publicly visible on the Play Store and operate freely. This means users can download Epic’s own Games Store and other third-party stores directly from Google Play without the infamous “unknown app” scare screens that appeared before.
There are more changes, but we must specify again that for now they only apply to the US from November 1 and for a fixed period of three years.
Developers can bypass Google Play’s billing system (and the 30% app tax) and inform users about alternative payment solutions. Additionally, developers can freely link users to download options outside the Play Store. It’s also important to note that developers can opt out of these changes if they wish.
The court’s ruling also explicitly bans Google from offering device manufacturers or providers any form of money or perks to discourage them from pre-installing third-party app stores on devices. Google is also not allowed to contact developers to prevent them from launching apps in competing app stores.
Google may implement “reasonable security measures” when accessing the Play Store and may charge a fee for those services. Disputes in these cases will be monitored by a specialized technical committee appointed by Google and Epic.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, has already done that confirmed that her company plans to appeal the court’s decision, so we can expect more developments in this saga.