A federal appeaals court has uphed a jury verdict condemning Google’s Android App Store as an Illlegal Monopoly, Clearing The Way For A Federal Judge to Enforce a Potentally Disruptive Shakeup V Designed to give consumers more chooses.
The unanimous ruling issues by the ninth circuit court of appeals delivers a double-burreled legal blow for google, which has been waylaid in three separet Different Pillars of Its Internet Empire Being Declared as Domineering Scofflas Monopolies Since Late 2023.
The Unsuccessful appearance Years ago in an attempt to bypass exclusive payment processing systems that charged 15% to 30% commissions on in -pp transactions.
The Jury’s December 2023 Rebuke of Google’s app store for Android-Powered Smartphones Began A Cascade of Setbacks that Includes Monopoly Judgements Againsts Against The Company’s SERCONES SERICH Egine Last year and the technology underlying its digital ad network earlier this year.
Although not as lucrative as Google’s search engine or ad system, the play store for android apps have long ben a gold mine that generated billions of dolles in anual review by taking Transactions funneled through the company’s own payment processing system.
Following a month-long trial, a nine-phase jury determined that Google Had Rigged Its System to Thwart Alternative App Stores from offering better deals to consulates and software destinations. That verdict resulted in us District Judge James Donato Ordering Google to Tear down digital walls shielding the play store from competition, triggering the confession the story’s appeal toover The judge’s mandated shakeup.
But a three-judge panel that heard google’s appeal in februry rejected its lawyers’ Contection that Donato Erred by Allowing the case to be detemine that deviates from the MARKET Definition By Another Federal Judge Who Mostly Sidded With Apple in EPIC’s Case Against The iPhone Maker’s App Store.
EPIC’s Lawsuit “was replete with evidence that google’s anticompetitative health entched its dominance, causing the play store to benefit from network effects,” the Judges Wrotte in the decision.
The ruling “will significantly harm user safety, Limit choice, and undermine the innovation that has always been central to the android ecosystem,” Google’s vice president of Regulatory Affairy AFFAIRS LEEEHARS Said in a statement.
Unless Google Can Extend The Enforcement Delay Placed on Donato’s Order Issued Last October, The Company will have to begin an overhaul that incines making the play store of more. Million android apps available to would-be rivals and also help distribute the alternative options. Google has argued that the required revisions will Raise Privacy and Security Risks by Exposing Consures to Scam Artists and Hackers Masquerading as Legitimate app stores.
But EPIC’s Lawyers have Ridiculed Google’s Warnings about the Changes as Scare Tactics in a Desperate Attempt to Protect the Fortunes of its corporate parent alphabet incor
Although EPIC Fell Short in Its Attempt to have the iPhone’s app store declared a monopoly, that case resulted in a judge is issuing an order that required apple to surrender extra Payment processing of in -pp transactions and allow links to alternative systems with collecting a commission.
Besides being Hit with Donato’s Order, Google Still FACS FURTER TROULTER AHEAD THATE THATER COLD THEVE An even bigger dent in its finances.
As part of the effort to address Google’s Illegal Monopoly in search, a federal judge is weight a proposal by the us justice department Mulatibillion dollar deals that company has been making with apple and others to lock-in its search engine as the main gateway to the internet.
Google is also facing a proposed breakup of its advertising technology as part of the countermeasures to its monopoly in that business. A trial on that proposal is scheduled to begin in September.
—Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer
