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Judge Tells Google To Brace For Shakeup Of Android App Store In 2024 As Punishment For Running A Monopoly
SAN FRANCISCO —A federal judge said on Wednesday that he would order major changes to Google’s Android app store to penalize the corporation for creating a system that a jury determined was an illegal monopoly, harming millions of users and app developers.
During a three-hour hearing in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge James Donato made it apparent that the upcoming shake-up he is contemplating will likely involve a mandate requiring Google’s Play Store for Android phones to allow consumers the option to download rival app shops.
Judge Tells Google To Brace For Shakeup Of Android App Store As Punishment For Running A Monopoly
Donato has been considering how to punish Google since last December when a jury deemed the Play Store a monopoly after a four-week trial. The ruling focused on Google’s practically complete control over the distribution of apps created for Android phones and the billing systems for the digital commerce that takes place within them—a system that earns the firm billions of dollars in income each year.
In response to the judge’s prospective requirements, Google has raised the possibility of consumers’ devices being infected with malicious software obtained from third-party app shops, resulting in “security chaos.”
But Donato pounded home the necessity for a big makeover of the Play Store, even if it causes Google difficulties and massive expenditures that the company has calculated may cost up to $600 million, depending on what the judge decides.
“We will tear down the barriers,” Donato told Google attorney Glenn Pomerantz. “When you have a mountain built out of bad conduct, you are going to have to move that mountain.”
Donato stated that he hopes to publish an order establishing the foundation for the modifications to the Play Store in the coming weeks, probably before Labour Day weekend.
Google’s efforts in the Play Store case penalty phase may anticipate its strategy in a similar round of so-called “remedy hearings” in a much larger antitrust lawsuit that resulted in a court designating the dominant search engine as an illegal monopoly. Hearings on the crown jewel of Google’s empire are expected to begin in Washington, D.C., on September 6.
In the Play Store case, Donato is struggling with how much time he should give Google to modify its Android operating system and Play Store, as well as how long the restrictions he imposes should be in place.
Google needs 12 to 16 months to make the necessary changes to enable a smooth transition and avoid errors that may harm the functionality of Android smartphones. Epic Games, the video game company that initiated the antitrust action that resulted in the Play Store being labeled a monopoly, claims Google could do everything in three months for approximately $1 million.
Donato suggested he will give Google less time than it wants to make the necessary modifications without a deadline.
Judge Tells Google To Brace For Shakeup Of Android App Store As Punishment For Running A Monopoly
“Google is telling me it will take aeons for all of this to happen, but I am sceptical about it,” according to the judge. “I am dubious that all that brainpower can’t solve these problems in less than 16 months.”
Epic Games wants whatever Donato orders to be in effect for six years, but the judge ruled Wednesday that the proposal should be shorter. He wondered aloud whether a five-year period for his directive would be more fitting. Google wants the order to expire in one or two years.
Donato told Google he would not try to micromanage its operations, even as he prepared the corporation for a major shake-up.
“The whole point is to grow a garden of competitive app stores,” the panel member explained.
SOURCE | AP
