The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to block key elements of an order by a judge that demanded Alphabet’s Google to make sweeping changes to its app store Play; therefore, the company gears up to appeal a decision in a case filed by the developer of the game “Fortnite.”
The judges rejected a bid by Google to temporarily stay the injunction awarded to Epic in its lawsuit against the tech giant over allegations of monopolizing the manner in which consumers access the Android-based apps and pay for their transactions in apps.
The judge had issued a broad order against Google, which was affirmed in July by a federal appeals court.
According to the injunction issued by U.S. District Judge James Donato last year, Google will have to allow users to access app stores of competitors in its Play store and open the app catalog of Play to competing companies. The provisions themselves do not become effective until July 2026.
The judge also stated that Google should permit developers to place external links in an application so that users could avoid using the Google billing system. That aspect of the injunction will become effective later this month.
The lawsuit Epic filed in 2020 against Google alleged that its restrictive app store policies were against antitrust law, but it was issued by Donato. Epic successfully won a jury case in San Francisco in 2023; Google has refuted the allegations of misconduct.
According to Google, the order by Donato was the first of its kind, and would lead to reputational damage, safety and security risks, and place the company at a competitive disadvantage were it to be implemented.
Google, in its filing to the Supreme Court, stated that the alterations would have massive implications for its 100 million Android users and 500,000 developers in the U.S.
Google announced that it would submit a complete appeal to the Supreme Court by October 27 that would enable the justices to address the matter during their nine-month term that commenced on Monday.
Epic has asserted that Google is basing its control over Android gadgets on what it termed “flawed security claims.”
Epic had requested the justices to permit Donato’s injunction to proceed “so consumers and developers can benefit from competition, choices, and lower prices.”
A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the injunction, finding that the record in the Epic case “replete with evidence that Google’s anticompetitive conduct entrenched its dominance.”
Other cases in which Google is the plaintiff include lawsuits against Google’s search and advertising practices by the government and consumers, and business plaintiffs.
