A federal judge in California has denied Google’s request granted to wait with the order to open the Play Store to third parties. That should have happened on November 1.
That order was issued in the drawn-out antitrust case between Google and Epic Games. Google argued that Judge Donato’s order on October 7 would harm the company due to “serious safety, security and privacy risks in the Android ecosystem.”
The reason for the suspension is that Google wants to appeal and the Court of Appeal would consider pausing the legal remedies.
Epic accused Google of using improper means to protect its ecosystems and charging unreasonable fees to developers. They have to pay 30 percent of the purchase of games and apps.
The judge then ruled that Google had to allow the use of competing in-app payment methods. He also banned Google from making payments to device makers to pre-install its app store on smartphones and tablets.
Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, previously achieved success in its case against Apple. Last summer, Apple allowed Epic to launch its own app store on iPhones and iPads.
Under pressure from European regulators, the group gave Epic permission last March to develop its own app store. The iPhone maker is said to have subsequently rejected the design documents for the app twice, because certain buttons and labels were too similar to those of the App Store.
Apple removed Fortnite from its app store in 2020 after Epic tried to bypass Apple’s payment system with its own variant.
Source: www.emerce.nl
