The jury of the US District Court of the Northern District of California ruled in favour of Epic Games in the antitrust case against Google over the Play app store. Epic Games filed the lawsuit in 2020, accusing Google of anti-competitive behaviour and of imposing fees of up to 30% on app developers.

The jury found that Google illegally linked its Play app store and billing services, thus having illegal monopoly power in the Android app distribution market and billing services. Google declared it would appeal the decision, while the court will decide what remedies to implement in January 2024.

Why does it matter?

This ruling is somewhat historic considering that Epic Games lost its case against Apple in September 2021 on the same matter, when Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that the case 'had nothing to do with apps'. As mentioned by Reuters, if this ruling holds, it could set a precedent that would allow developers to have more control over the distribution of their apps and the profits they develop, meaning this would change the entire economy of the Play Store app store, which is Google's central hub for app distribution on billions of Android devices.