Epic Games has won a major victory against Google in a US court

Epic won lawsuit against Google/wayhomestudio

Last week, Epic filed a new lawsuit against Google and Samsung in the Northern District of California for restricting access to third-party app stores on Android devices.

The court moved quickly ruled in favor of Epic and ordered Google to restructure its Play Store to allow third-party app stores access to its entire app catalog. This is reported by GSMArena.

This event took place almost ten months after the same the court ruled that Google is a monopoly in the market for the distribution of Android applications and in-app billing services.

Google will now be forced to allow third-party app stores to be visible to public in the Play Market and work freely. This means that users will be able to download their own Epic Games Store and other third-party stores directly from Google Play without the infamous “unknown apps” that appeared before.

There are other changes, but we have to clarify again that they will be applied only in the US for now from November 1 and for a specified period of three years.

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< img class="aligncenter" src="/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2886b056f6e97d009e66f531c70b351f.png" alt="Epic Games wins big win against Google in US court" />

Developers can bypass the billing systemGoogle Play (and 30% app tax) and inform users about alternative payment methods. Additionally, developers will be free to refer users to download options outside of the Play Store. It's also important to note that developers can opt out of these changes if they choose.

The court ruling also expressly prohibits Google from offering device manufacturers or carriers money or benefits in any form to dissuade them from the previous installing third-party application stores on the device. Google also has no right to contact developers to prevent them from running apps on competing app stores.

Google will be allowed to implement “reasonable security measures” when opening the Play Store, and also charge for these services. Disputes in these cases will be heard by a specialized technical committee appointed by Google and Epic.

Lee-Ann Mulholland, Google's vice president of regulatory affairs, has already confirmed that her company plans to appeal the court's decision, so we can expect further development of events in this saga.