Google has requested the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to temporarily halt a ruling that compels the company to open its Play Store to third-party competitors while it appeals an antitrust decision won by Epic Games.
After a federal jury found that Google had maintained an illegal monopoly over app distribution and in-app billing services for Android devices, the ruling mandated that Google allow third-party app stores to access the Play catalog. Google argues that this could expose its 100 million U.S. Android users to significant security risks, citing concerns about third-party stores potentially having weaker protections that could result in malicious apps or phishing attacks.
In its appeal, Google called the ruling “harmful and unwarranted,” explaining that users might falsely assume that the company is endorsing the third-party stores. It added that allowing such app stores within its platform could give legitimacy to bad actors and create potential risks for businesses that do not want their products displayed alongside inappropriate or harmful content. Google also emphasized that the court’s decision to let developers remove Google Play billing could negatively impact the user experience by forcing them into using systems that may lack the security features users have come to expect.
Further, Google pointed out that the three-week timeframe the court provided to implement these changes is not feasible for such a massive overhaul, referring to the effort as a “Herculean task” and warning of potential risks to the functionality of users’ Android devices.
The company also questioned the inconsistency between this ruling and a similar lawsuit involving Apple, where the court ruled in Apple’s favor, despite its requirement that all apps must go through the Apple App Store.
