Unlike the iPhone, Android users can sideload apps onto their phones from day one. But in the wake of the antitrust case against Google in the United States, a judge says this is not good enough. Google will be forced to allow third-party companies to distribute their own Android app stores on the Google Play Store, without sideloading.
Ars Technica reports that US Federal Judge James Donato has issued an order that will force Google to allow third parties like Epic Games and Amazon to load their own apps that distribute other apps to users, which is currently against its terms of service from the Play Store.
Those stores – presumably the Epic Games Store and Amazon Appstore respectively – would then allow users to purchase and install other apps, completely outside of Google’s semi-closed system and outside of its lucrative monetization platform. That was certainly Epic’s goal when it filed its first lawsuit in 2020 after its attempted sale Fortnite in-app purchases without giving Google the standard 30 percent discount. Google also cannot force app developers to sell in-app purchases only through the Play Store.
Donato also takes aim at Google’s cozy (or heavy-handed, depending on who you ask) relationships with phone makers and carriers. Starting November 1, Google won’t be able to force phone manufacturers or carriers to pre-install the Play Store to access other Google services like Search and Gmail for three years. Google also can’t stop them from pre-installing other app stores. The judge said this three-year period is specifically intended to allow Google’s competitors to “level the playing field” in the app space.
Predictably, Google is already planning to appeal the order, which will likely take its enforcement past the November 1 date and possibly into next year even if it is upheld. But Google’s control over Android as a platform appears shaky. In addition to years of regulatory action in the European Union, the U.S. Justice Department has said it is considering forcing Google to split the Play Store, Android itself or the Chrome browser-slash operating system into separate companies. or sell them entirely. That would be the nation’s most sweeping antitrust action this century.
Frankly, it all seems like a gamble in the current political climate. But it’s clear that Google’s “don’t call it a walled garden” approach to the Android ecosystem is under serious regulatory fire. Big change from some kind of seems inevitable at this point – the only questions will be exactly how big that change is, and how it will affect the market and the billions of people who use Android every day.
