The United States district judge made a final ruling on Monday, October 7, requiring Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, to open its application store to third-party markets. Google has stated that it will appeal the decision.
The injunction issued by Judge James Donato in San Francisco details the changes Google must make, requesting a comprehensive overhaul of the Play app store to provide Android users with more choices for downloading applications.
In a case where Epic Games sued Google, a jury in San Francisco declared Google’s app store an illegal monopoly last December.
According to the latest order, Google will be prohibited from engaging in several anti-competitive behaviors identified by the jury over the next three years.
These prohibitions include sharing revenue with potential competitors and requiring developers to launch applications only on the Play store.
The judge also ordered the establishment of a three-member technical committee responsible for monitoring the implementation of changes and resolving any potential disputes.
Google has stated that it will appeal the ruling and has requested a stay on the injunction until the appeal result is reached.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, Deputy General Counsel for the company’s regulatory affairs, said, “We look forward to continuing to present our arguments in the appeal, advocating for the best interests of developers, device manufacturers, and the billions of Android users worldwide.”
To maintain its position as a one-stop application store, Google pays revenue shares to smartphone manufacturers in exchange for the exclusive access to the Play store. Court proceedings revealed that Google has earned billions of dollars in revenue through its app store.
Google has lost two antitrust lawsuits within a year. In August, the Washington D.C. federal court ruled that Google illegally monopolized the online search business.
The tech giant faced a third federal case last month for its dominant position in online advertising, leading to an antitrust lawsuit.