Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Epic has just received a big win in its fight against Google’s Play Store policies.
- Google can’t stop third party app stores, and is now being forced to play nicely with them.
- An injunction goes into effect on November 1 that would force Google to changes its policies for the next three years.
Epic has been raging holy war across mobile platforms for years now, fighting to upheave the monolithic app distribution systems at the core of Google’s and Apple’s ecosystems. Epic already found itself on the path towards victory as a jury found that the the Play Store and Play Store billing constituted a monopoly on Google’s part, and we’ve been waiting to learn what the fallout from that decision would be. Now the ruling is in, and Google is going to have to make some big changes to how it does things.
Judge James Donato lays down a few core consequences for Google, reports Bloomberg. Starting next month, Google can’t make deals that force devs to make their apps exclusively available in the Play Store, nor can the company prohibit devs from communicating alternate ways through which users can access their software.
One of the most impactful rules here would force Google to itself host third-party stores on Play, helping to give users access to them in the first place (via CNBC). Devs wouldn’t be forced to use Google’s billing services, nor stopped from pointing users towards cheaper ways to pay.
All of these rules will be in effect for a period of three years, once they begin at the start of November.
