by A federal court jury has ruled that Google’s Android app store is protected by anticompetitive barriers that have harmed smartphone consumers and software developers, dealing a blow to a major pillar of the technology empire.
The verdict was unanimous on Monday after three hours of deliberation following a four-week trial involving a lucrative payment system within the Google Play Store. The store is the primary place where hundreds of millions of people around the world download and install apps that run on smartphones powered by Google’s Android software.
Epic Games, the maker of the popular video game Fortnite, filed a lawsuit against Google three years ago, alleging that the internet search giant is abusing its power to protect its Play Store from competition to mine gold. to protect that makes billions. dollars annually. Just like Apple does for its iPhone app store, Google collects a commission of 15 percent to 30 percent on digital transactions completed within apps.
Apple prevailed in a similar case brought by Epic against the iPhone app store. But a federal judge upheld that 2021 trial in a ruling that is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The jury of nine in the Play Store seems to have seen things through a different lens, although Google technically allows Android apps to be downloaded from different stores – an option that Apple forbids on the iPhone.
Just before the Play Store trial began, Google tried to avoid having a jury decide the outcome, only for US District Judge James Donato to deny his request. Now it will be up to Donato to decide what steps Google needs to take to stop its illegal behavior in the Play Store. The judge indicated that he will hold hearings on the issue during the second week of January.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney broke down after the verdict was read and slapped his lawyers on the back and also shook the hand of Google’s attorney, whom he thanked for his professional attitude during the proceedings.
“Victory over Google!” Sweeney wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. In a company post, Epic said the verdict was “a win for all app developers and consumers around the world”.
‘Apple is not the ‘get out of jail free’ card
Google plans to appeal the verdict, according to a statement from Wilson White, the company’s vice president of government affairs and public policy.
“Android and Google Play provide more choice and openness than any other major mobile platform,” said White.
Depending on how the judge enforces the jury’s verdict, Google could lose billions of dollars in annual profit generated from its Play Store commissions. The outcome of the trial will not directly affect the company’s main source of revenue – digital advertising which is mainly tied to its search engine, Gmail and other services.
The jury reached its decision after hearing two hours of closing arguments from the lawyers on the opposing side of the case.
Epic lawyer Gary Bornstein portrayed Google as a ruthless bully that uses a “bribe and block” strategy to discourage competition against its Play Store for Android apps. Google lawyer Jonathan Kravis attacked Epic as a self-interested game maker trying to use the courts to save itself money while undermining an ecosystem that has spent billions of Android smartphones to compete against Apple and its iPhone.
Much of the lawyers’ dueling arguments involved testimony from a number of witnesses who came to court during the trial.
Key witnesses included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who at times appeared like a professor explaining complex topics while standing behind a lectern due to a health issue, and Sweeney, who painted himself as a video game lover on a mission to take down a greedy tech titan. .
In his closing argument for Epic, Bornstein railed against Google for leveraging its power over the Android software in a way that “has led to higher prices for developers and consumers, as well as less innovation and quality.” .
Google staunchly defended the commissions as a way to help offset the more than $40 billion (€37 billion) it incurred to build the Android software it has been giving manufacturers since 2007 to compete against the iPhone.
“Android phones can’t compete against the iPhone without a great app store,” Kravis said in his closing argument. “The competition between the app stores is tied to the competition between the phones”.
But Bornstein scoffed at the notion that Google and Android were competing against Apple and its incompatible iPhone software system. “Apple is not the ‘get out of jail free’ card that Google wants it to be,” Bornstein told the jury.
Google also cited competing Android app stores such as the one Samsung installs on its popular smartphones as evidence of a free market. Along with rival app stores pre-installed on devices made by other companies, more than 60 percent of Android phones offer alternative outlets for Android apps.
Epic, however, presented evidence that confirmed the notion that Google welcomes competition as a reason, citing the hundreds of billions of dollars it has given companies, such as game maker Activision Blizzard, to discourage them from opening rival app stores. Rather than making these payments, Bornstein urged the jury to consider Google’s “scare screens” that pop up, warning consumers of potential security threats when they try to download Android apps from of the alternatives to the Play Store.
Google’s empire could be undermined by another major antitrust trial in Washington to be decided by a federal judge after hearing closing arguments in May. That trial highlighted Google’s cozy relationship with Apple in online search, the technology that made Google a household word a few years after two former Stanford University students started the company in a Silicon Valley garage in 1998. .
