Be on the lookout for the Epic Games Store, as it should appear soon on the Google Play Store. After losing his appeal from the order of a judge, Google will now have to revise its policies of the App Store. This includes the leash of third-party application stores on its platform.
Today, the ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided (via Bloomberg) to enforce the decision of Epic v. Google in origin of origin. This decision revealed that the Play Store and the technology giant payment systems were monopolies. As a result, Google will have to follow the remedies of this antitrust case. These remedies include limiting the company’s capacity to pay for telephone manufacturers to preinstall the Play Store, allowing developers to use other payment systems and open Android to third -party application stores.
This decision comes after Google won a temporary administrative stay in 2024. However, Google has always been forced to stop concluding agreements with other phone manufacturers who have prohibited shipping equipment with non -Google application stores.
After the decision of the decision, the vice-president of regulatory affairs of Google, Lee-Anne Mulholland, provided the following statement::
This decision will considerably harm user safety, limit the choice and undergo the innovation that has always been at the heart of the Android ecosystem. Our top priority remains to protect our users and developers and ensure a secure platform while we continue our appeal.
The chairman of the board of directors of developers Alliance Jake Ward echoes the feeling that Google has offered. In a declaration sent to Android authorityWard said:
The ninth circuit has spoken – and apparently, the construction of a secure platform that triggers innovation is now punishment. By respecting the appeals of the district court, the court has given Apple the complete domination of the applications market on a silver platter.
These erroneous remedies will not encourage competition or will not help consumers, but compromise the confidence and the value that developers find in the Android ecosystem. Forcing Google to distribute third -party application stores on Google Play and allow developers to create a link to unsecured destinations creates safety problems that will know consumer confidence in Android.
In an unstable economy, developers need support and stability – and not an exceeding of reception that introduces new risks and obstacles to success.
Meanwhile, epic CEO Tim Sweeney welcomed the decision, claiming the “total victory” on X (formerly Twitter). He followed this social post with another who announced that the Epic Games store for Android would now come to the Play Store due to the verdict.
