GOOGLE LOSES ANTITRUST APPEAL IN EPIC GAMES CASE, SIGNALING TROUBLE FOR PLAY STORE RULES

Google has officially lost its appeal in a high-stakes antitrust battle against Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, marking a significant setback for the tech giant and its control over app distribution on Android.

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The decision, issued by a U.S. federal court this week, upholds the jury's December 2023 verdict that Google's app store practices constituted illegal monopolistic behavior.

The ruling affirms that Google used its dominant position in the mobile ecosystem to stifle competition and maintain an unfair grip on developers through restrictive practices and excessive fees. Epic’s original lawsuit, filed in 2020, accused Google of leveraging its control over Android's Play Store to block alternative app stores, discourage sideloading, and impose high revenue-sharing demands on app developers.

With the court's latest decision, Epic has now won a major legal victory that could trigger broader changes in how Android apps are distributed, not only in the U.S. but potentially worldwide.

A LANDMARK CASE FOR MOBILE PLATFORM COMPETITION

At the heart of the case is the allegation that Google maintained a closed ecosystem—despite Android being marketed as an open-source platform—by using financial incentives, exclusive deals, and contractual restrictions to prevent OEMs, developers, and users from bypassing the Play Store. Epic's legal team successfully argued that this harmed both app creators and consumers by suppressing competition and inflating prices.