The App Store had ruled an Illegal Monopoly

The 2020 Google-App Store Trial Moves to a Remediations Phase in the U.S. Courts of First and Second Circuits

The lawsuit next moves to a remedies phase, meaning a judge as soon as the coming weeks will hear arguments about and decide whether to order changes to Google’s business practices. Users of devices powered by Google’s Android operating system could find more app options to choose from, at lower prices, if Google is forced to allow downloads of rival app stores from Play or share a greater portion of sales with developers selling digital items inside their apps.

It’s a historic victory, particularly because Epic mostly lost its fight against Apple two years ago when Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers decided that fight had nothing to do with apps.

“We don’t do don’t-break-the-law injunctions… if you have a problem, you can come back,” Donato said. He also said he did not intend to decide what percentage fee Google should charge for its products.

Judge Donato also tried to prevent the case even going to trial, ordering several times for Epic and Google to attempt to settle instead. According to the filing, a last-second effort by the CEOs of both companies failed to result in a deal on December 7.

A jury has been hearing a case since early November, and has now ruled, in a lawsuit filed in 2020 by the game developer. The jury of nine deliberated for three hours before reaching its verdict after a juror dropped out. They faced a number of questions that were related to defining product and geographic markets as well as anticompetitive conduct.

Google stated that it intended to provide a safe and attractive experience to its users as it faced competition from Apple and other companies.

More bad news for Google could come in mid-2024 when US district judge Amit Mehta in Washington, DC, is expected to issue his ruling on whether Google has unlawfully maintained its monopoly over web search. Testimony in that case, which was brought by the US Department of Justice and attorneys general for nearly every US state and territory, concluded last month.

Google hasn’t said much about why it chose to have a jury rather than a judge decide its fate in the trial that concluded today, though it tried unsuccessfully to reverse course on the eve of jury selection.

Google previously agreed to settle with as many as 48,000 app developers but without making major changes to its business practices. The group of consumers and attorneys general of all 50 US states came to a settlement with it. Details of the latter settlement had not been published, pending the verdict in the Epic trial.