Google in court – won the battle but is losing the war?
The American court helped Alphabet, the owner of Google. Does this mean that the disagreements between Google and Epic Games will end?
An American court agreed to the request of Alphabet, the owner of Google, to make the Google Play mobile store available to competitors. The point here is though only to extend the time for such changesand not the mere fact of the need to make them.
On October 7, Judge James Donato decided that Google must allow products from other publishers to its store on Android devices and enable payment methods other than those owned by Alphabet. This ruling was issued following a lawsuit filed by Epic Games. The producer of the popular game Fortnite accused Google of monopolistic practices regarding the ability to download products on Android devices.
Judge Donato gave Google until November 1 to make the necessary technological changes, believing that this was a sufficient period to make them. However, Google appealed against this decision, claiming that the changes in such a short period of time carry a “serious risk to the security and privacy of Android users.”
The judge decided to withhold his ruling until the court considers this appeal.
We are glad that the court decided to temporarily suspend the implementation of these dangerous changes requested by Epic Games.
– we can read in a statement issued by Google.
In turn, Epic Games wrote in its press release:
Google is making unfounded threats to users’ security in order to continue charging them more.
See: Google Play. Users have been waiting for this change
