The Faces of Competition: A Challenge for Google to Compute Adversarial Litigation Charges in Mobile App Stores after the Play Decay

A US jury ruled in December that there were unfair deals and billing practices that gave an unfair boost to its Play app store. On Thursday, a judge began laying out how Google could be forced to change its business as a penalty. The most consequential shakeup in history is possible because of the remedies under consideration.

Epic is hoping the court approves several remedies it had previously submitted, which Google claims are over the top and would “harm the privacy, security, and overall experience of consumers.” All eyes are on Judge James Donato, who heard testimony on both sides, and offered some hints as to how he is leaning.

Rival app stores such as those from Amazon and Samsung also have struggled to persuade developers to list their apps outside of Google Play, because maintaining apps in multiple stores takes extra work. Competition needs to be evened out, so that rivals can list hosted apps on the same level as those hosted on Google Play. It would allow people to browse alternative stores without feeling they are missing out on popular apps, helping the store have a better chance of success in the long term.

“We are going to be walking on new terrain for a while. That’s just the consequence of breaking the antitrust laws — we have to do things in a different way.”