A US appeals court has upheld a 2023 jury verdict in the Epic Games v. Google case, declaring the Google Play app store and the company's payment system to be illegal monopolies, The Verge reports.
The Ninth Circuit Court rejected Google's appeal and reinstated a permanent injunction requiring the company to open Android to competing app stores.
"Total victory in the Epic v Google appeal!" Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney wrote in X.
The ruling means that Google must fundamentally change its approach to the Google Play Store within three years. The company will be required to distribute app stores from competitors in its own store, give companies access to the full Google Play catalog, and end anti-competitive practices, including the mandatory use of Google Play Billing.
The dispute began in 2020 when Epic intentionally circumvented Google's payment system in the game Fortnite, leading to the game's removal from the store. Unlike a similar lawsuit against Apple, which Epic largely lost, the case against Google was successful thanks to evidence of secret revenue-sharing agreements between Google, smartphone manufacturers, and game developers.
Epic has already announced the launch of its own Epic Games Store on the Google Play Store. At the same time, Google has announced its intention to appeal the decision in the US Supreme Court and warned of potential risks to user security.
An appeals court rejected Google's argument that it competes with Apple in the overall mobile app market, citing fundamental differences between Apple's "closed garden" and Android's "open distribution" that create different market conditions.