By Edna-UCLIQ
A federal judge in California has temporarily put on hold an order that would have forced Google to make major changes to its Android app store.
The decision comes in a lawsuit brought by Epic Games, maker of “Fortnite,” citing antitrust.
U.S. District Judge James Donato issued his order today. Google said the October 7 injunction would cause irreparable harm to its business and create grave safety risks.
“We’re pleased that the District Court has temporarily paused implementation of unsafe remedies demanded by Epic,” Google said.
Donato’s ruling opens the door for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review Google’s motion to stay the order. But Donato denied Google’s motion to stay the order for the duration of its appeal. Epic said in response that Friday’s ruling was procedural. “The court made it clear that Google’s appeal is meritless,” Epic said.
Epic said Google was engaging in “fearmongering” to keep its vice grip on Android. The company accused Google of just protecting its interests to continue the high fees on developers. The jury earlier found that, in this lawsuit, Google had illegally monopolized in-app downloads and app-store payments on Android.
The judge had ordered sweeping changes that Epic had advocated for. It requires Google to give users the right to download third-party Android app platforms and to accept competing in-app payment options.
It also prohibits Google from paying device manufacturers for pre-installing its app store on their devices. That order also forbade Google from distributing revenue with any other app distributors.
Google has already appealed the jury’s antitrust decision to the 9th Circuit. The company hasn’t yet briefed its case to the appellate court. Google insists it can’t be classified as a monopolist because the Play Store directly competes with Apple’s App Store. They also said that Donato’s injunction would illegally compel them to deal with competitors.
