Google Asks Appeal Court To Throw Out Epic App Store Verdict

Alphabet’s Google continues to deal with numerous legal issues, and this week has filed its appeal argument following a courtroom victory by Epic Games nearly a year ago.

Reuters reported that Google has asked a US appeals court on Wednesday to throw out a 2023 jury verdict, as well as a judge’s order forcing it to make significant changes to the Google Play Store’s payment system.

In its first detailed filing, to the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, Google reportedly said the trial judge made legal errors that unfairly benefited the plaintiff, Epic Games.

Epic Games lawsuit

Both Apple and Google have for years faced criticism and scrutiny over the dominance of their respective App Store and Google Play store platforms.

Critics allege both tech giants impose unfair charges on app developers and limit competition.

Matters came to a head in 2020 when Epic Games had deliberately instituted its own payment methods for mobile versions of its products, including its popular game Fortnite, in circumvention of Apple and Google’s rules, after which Fortnite was removed from the Play Store and Apple’s App Store.

Epic argued their fees were “taxes” on developers, and in August 2020 Epic filed a lawsuit against both Apple and Google over the 30 percent commission charges on their respective App Stores.

In December 2023 a jury trial found in favour of Epic that Google’s Android app store and the Google Play billing service constituted an illegal monopoly.

That trial had lasted just over a month.

Open up App Store

Then in October 2024 Judge James Donato ordered Google to take wide-ranging measures to open up its Google Play app store, on Android.

Effectively Google was ordered to allow app developers to implement their own billing options alongside Google Play’s payment system for in-app purchases. Previously, app makers were limited to Google’s proprietary payment system for purchases on the Google Play platform.

The judge ruled that Google will have to distribute rival app stores on Google Play and must make the entire Google Play catalogue available to competitors, unless developers individually opt out.

The jury also found that many of the deals the Android maker had with companies including game developers and phone manufacturers were anticompetitive behaviour, and Donato said in October these will have to stop.

The ruling granted many of Epic’s remedy demands, rejecting Google’s arguments that they would be unduly burdensome, expensive or time-consuming.

But he said the measures must be in place for only three years, down from the six requested by Epic.

Donato also rejected Epic’s demand that Google allow users to sideload apps with a single tap, and that Google be barred from tying Android APIs to Google Play.

Google appeal

Google however said the changes would cause “a range of unintended consequences that will harm American consumers, developers and device makers”.

It said it was asking for a “pause” on the order and would file an appeal against the ruling.

Now Google’s appeal arguments have been filed, in which the firm argued that judge James Donato should have made a decision himself instead of holding a trial with a jury in the antitrust case last year.

Google also argued judge Donato should have acknowledged Google’s competition with Apple in the smartphone market, citing a finding from another judge who found last year that Apple did not violate antitrust laws in a lawsuit also brought by Epic.

Epic vs Apple

But what about Epic versus Apple?

Well Epic had also sued Apple in August 2020 on similar grounds, but in 2021 US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers mostly rejected Epic’s antitrust claims against Apple.

It should be noted that the European Union is currently attempting to force Apple to open up its App Store to competition for smartphones within the bloc under new Digital Markets Act rules.