Google loses to Epic Games in Play Store appeal

Google has failed to overturn a jury verdict that sees it having to allow third-party App Stores such as one by Epic Games.

Epic Games vs Google sounds like a repeat or a parallel world version of Epic Games vs Apple, but in this case the games company won decisively, and Google has now failed to overturn that on appeal. According to Reuters, Google’s appeal centered on alleged legal errors in the case, but the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously rejected the claims.

Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown ruled that the case Epic Games brought was “replete with evidence that Google’s anticompetitive conduct entrenched its dominance.”

Following the result, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney described it as “Total victory in the Epic v Google appeal!” on social media.

At heart, this is the same issue as the trial between Epic Games and Apple — the games company wants to force change on all app stores, in order to increase profits for its own.

However, significantly Google has previously allowed third-party app stores where Apple had to be forced into it, first by the European Union. The issue in this case, then, has been over how Google allegedly stifled competition by promoting its own Google Play Store above others, and making changing stores cumbersome.

Epic Games filed suit in 2021. Then in December 2023, a jury found in favor of the games company, the opposite of what happened with Apple.

Google, though, has now protested against the ruling, listing exactly the same concerns that Apple always raises. The appeals court’s ruling “will significantly harm user safety, limit choice, and undermine the innovation that has always been central to the Android ecosystem,” said Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs.

Now Google will have to comply with the trial’s original order that it revamp how it features rival stores on its Google Play Store. It will also have to make its whole Play Store catalog available for third-party stores to include.

How this affects Apple

Apple has a stronger case about user privacy and security than Google, since Google has already allowed third-party stores and so does not control its app ecosystem in the same way. Plus neither the appeal nor the original trial ruling have any direct impact on Apple.

However, it’s a significant win, and now also a notable precedent, that is surely going to be used against Apple in future App Store cases.