Epic just won its Google lawsuit again, and Android may never be the same | The Verge
It may be open season on Google Play.
theverge.com
Epic just scored a “total victory” as a Ninth Circuit panel upheld the 2023 jury’s ruling that Google’s Play Store and billing system are illegal monopolies, kicking a long-paused permanent injunction back into gear. Google now has to start cracking open Android to third-party app stores—including Epic’s own—within 14 days (plus an extra week from an emergency stay), even as it lodges another appeal.
This three-year injunction would force Google to host rival app stores inside Play, share its full app catalog, and ditch exclusive billing hooks, while banning various anti-competitive practices. Google warns this will hurt security and plans to use its eight-month “narrowly tailored” window to propose safety measures, but unless it secures more delays, parts of the ruling—like the billing ban—take effect in mere weeks.
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