(Bloomberg) — A federal judge in California said he would order Google, part of Alphabet Inc., to open its app store in the coming weeks and rebuked the tech giant for refusing to accept that it has a monopoly on distributing and billing for Android apps.
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In December, jurors ruled in favor of the maker of the popular video game Fortnite, concluding that Google had unlawfully abused its power over Android apps, which brought the technology company $14.66 billion in revenue in 2020. U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco will now decide what policy changes Google must make to comply with federal antitrust law.
Donato said at a hearing on Wednesday that he plans to issue a verdict in the coming weeks and is considering a remedy that would also apply outside the United States because the jury found that anti-competitive practices were occurring worldwide.
The judge criticized Google for resisting some of the remedies proposed by Epic Games Inc.
“Build a fence”
“If you build a fence to keep everyone out, there will be a mass panic when you finally open the gate,” Donato said. “They shouldn’t have built a fence in the first place.”
Google had estimated that implementing the proposed changes could take 12 to 16 months, but Donato indicated that he would like a faster timeline.
“That’s Google,” he said. “You can do better than that.”
Donato’s ruling is the first in the U.S. to correct Google’s dominance after years of European competition lawsuits and fines totaling more than 8.25 billion euros ($9.1 billion). At stake are billions in revenue for Google Play, which charges software developers commissions of up to 30 percent that few other platforms normally charge to market their apps.
Antitrust review
In its December verdict, the jury found that Google, which has been under antitrust scrutiny for a decade, was engaging in illegal monopolization worldwide, with the exception of China.
Last week, a judge in another federal court ruled that Google had illegally monopolized the online search and advertising markets. The Justice Department, which filed the lawsuit against Google along with a group of state attorneys general, is currently considering seeking to break up the company in the wake of that decision, Bloomberg reported.
Epic had requested that some of the remedies, such as third-party app stores’ access to the millions of apps in the Google Play Store, be in place for six years. Google countered that one or two years should be long enough for apps to gain traction on their own, after which Google should no longer be forced to “support its competitors.”
Donato indicated that his ruling is expected to last for at least three years. He also said that he intends to appoint a three-member technical committee to monitor the company’s compliance with his order.
The judge repeatedly assured Google’s lawyers that he had no interest in interfering in the details of the company’s business.
“I have no intention of issuing a very detailed decree that ultimately harms competition,” Donato said.
Epic has also been conducting a long-running antitrust case against Apple Inc.’s App Store.
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