Jury finds Google illegally monopolized Android app market

In a historic verdict that could shake up the mobile app ecosystem, a federal jury has found that Google illegally monopolized the Android app market and abused its power over app developers.

The unanimous verdict, delivered after only a few hours of jury deliberation, establishes that Google has monopolized two key markets — Android app distribution and in-app payment processing. By leveraging its monopoly power to tie its Google Play Store with its Google Play Billing system, Google quashed competition and forced app makers to pay a 30% commission on sales, the jury concluded.

The ramifications of the verdict could be far-reaching, giving momentum to ongoing antitrust investigations into Google’s practices by state and federal regulators. And it deals a major blow to Google’s arguments that its behavior is no different than Apple’s App Store, which faces its monopoly charges.

Epic Games, maker of the popular Fortnite game, filed the lawsuit back in 2020 after both Apple and Google banned Fortnite from their app stores for trying to bypass their payment systems. While a judge last year said Apple did not have an illegal monopoly, the Google verdict establishes key differences in how it wields power.

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Central to the case is the question of choice. Apple’s iPhones only allow apps to be downloaded from the Apple App Store, which comes preinstalled on every iPhone. Google, however, allows Android users to “sideload” apps without using the Play Store.

But the jury ultimately did not buy Google’s argument that the Play Store does not exercise monopoly power since Android supports sideloading. They determined that Google used contracts and technical barriers to effectively block any meaningful competition.

Of particular note was the finding that Google’s deals with smartphone makers like Samsung containing requirements to pre-install and prominently place the Google Play Store was part of its anticompetitive arsenal.

While Google says it plans to appeal the verdict, app developers are celebrating a new ray of hope that the app economy can be wrested away from the grip of big tech gatekeepers. The ball now moves to the remedy phase, where impacts on Google could include forced separation of the Play Store from Play Billing, as well as measures to boost app store competition.

As regulators gear up to confront anticompetitive practices among US technology titans, the dramatic verdict shows that no app store owns a monopoly on justice for desperate app makers. The ultimate impact remains to be seen, but for now, advantage Epic.