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Federal jury decides Google’s Android app store benefits from anticompetitive barriers (apnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by girlfreddy to c/news

24 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The unanimous verdict reached Monday came after just three hours of deliberation following a four-week trial revolving around a lucrative payment system within Google’s Play store. The store is the main place where hundreds of millions of people around the world download and install apps that work on smartphones powered by Google’s Android software.

Epic Games, the maker of the popular Fortnite video game, filed a lawsuit against Google three years ago, alleging that the internet powerhouse has been abusing its power to shield its Play Store from competition in order to protect a gold mine that makes billions of dollars annually. Just as Apple does for its iPhone app store, Google collects a commission ranging from 15% to 30% on digital transactions completed within apps.

Apple prevailed in a similar case that Epic brought against the iPhone app store, but the 2021 trial was decided by a federal judge in a ruling that is under appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court.

But the nine-person jury in the Play store case apparently saw things through a different lens, even though Google technically allows Android apps to be downloaded from different stores — an option that Apple prohibits on the iPhone.

Just before the Play store trial started, Google sought to avoid having a jury determine the outcome, only to have its request rejected by U.S. District Judge James Donato. Now it will be up to Donato to determine what steps Google will have to take to unwind its illegal behavior in the Play Store. The judge indicated he will hold hearings on the issue during the second week of January.

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[–] solidgrue 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Now do Apple

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They did, they lost, and it's under appeal.

[–] UPGRAYEDD 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"They" as in apple lost?

What were the penalties?

[–] Alxe 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Apple won, Epic lost.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Different case, different set of scenarios, ruled by a judge instead of a jury as well. They could likely go back after Apple with this precedence now and a new angle.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Oh yeah, that makes complete sense. Apple, who has a WAY more restrictive environment doesn't have a monopoly, but Google does. Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of Google, but I hate Epic even more.

[+] kaffiene -11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah. Epic giving away the best game engine in the world for free and funding game dev tools and open source is evil through and through.

[–] pivot_root 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Free to try isn't the same as free to use commercially. You could pick up the engine to experiment with and develop on for free, but they'll come knocking for royalties when you try to publish your game or movie.

It's about as free as WinRAR or an Adobe trial, basically.

[–] kaffiene -2 points 1 year ago

I'm quite aware of their royalty deals

[–] ZapBeebz_ 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They're giving away things to get people to rely on those tools. As soon as they have a majority market share, they'll start charging. It's the same bullshit every company that provides a tool or service for free eventually does. They have to have money coming in to keep the lights on, so they run a huge loss and gamble that eventually they'll make it big. Fuck Epic, and fuck monopolies.

[–] pivot_root 5 points 1 year ago

On a related note, fuck Adobe.

[–] kaffiene 1 points 1 year ago

Theyre a better corporate citizen than Unity. And those mega grants to open source aren't about lock-in.

[–] TenderfootGungi -1 points 1 year ago

As an iPhone user, I do not

[+] [email protected] -10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Many people have f-droid installed. And you can freely download Android apps from the internet and install them. Where is the anticompetitive behavior?

[–] kaffiene 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The percentage of people who have fdroid installed is tiny

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fact 1: virtually all Android users use the Play Store because it's the default.

Fact 2: the fact that it is the default store gives it a huge advantage in terms of network effect. If you want to have a viable commercial app it needs to be on the Play Store.

Fact 3: Google forbids apps from charging extra for sales if the app was installed through the app store

Fact 4: between being the default, all the apps being available there, and all the negative effects of Google's practices being shifted to the app developers, the average user has no reason to use 3rd party stores.

Fact 5: Google uses the leverage it gained from the previous points to force everyone selling through the Play Store to pay a commission on their sales. Which is a cost I remind, they cannot pass to the users.

Google's fault is mainly on facts 4, which is the linchpin to protect the monopoly, and 5, which is where they are abusing their effective monopoly. I could also add fact 6 which is the fact that for years Google made third party stores have a far worse user experience than the play store which helped solidifying it's position, but that is mostly fixed with the session installer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I read more about the case and it seems it's not about the store itself. The real issue is that behind the stage Google makes individual contracts with companies. They agree about fees etc. This is really not fair.