Attorneys for Alphabet’s Google and Fortnite Maker Epic Games will be paralleled on Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals in California, U.S., as Google attempts to cancel the jury’s ruling and the judge’s orders force it to improve its App Store.
Google filed a debate in court with the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that the trial judge made legal mistakes in an antitrust case, which benefited Epic Games unfairly.
In a 2020 lawsuit, Epic accused Google of monopolizing how consumers access apps on Android devices and how they pay for transactions within the app. The Cary, North Carolina-based company convinced a 2023 San Francisco jury to believe Google had illegally suffocated the game.
U.S. District Court Judge James Donato ordered Google in October to restore competition by allowing users to download competitors’ app stores in their game stores and to make Play’s App Catalog, among other reforms, and other reforms.
The order was put on hold as the 9th Tour weighed Google’s appeal.
The tech giant believes its gaming store is fiercely competitive with Apple’s app store, and Donato unfairly told jurors that Google and Apple are not competitors for app distribution and in-app payments.
Google also said it was wrong for Donato to issue orders that affect users and developers across the country to be more than just epic commands. It said the judge is acting as “the central planner in charge of product design.”
Epic asked the 9th Circuit to reject these arguments and accuse Google of “a long-term strategy to curb competition in app stores and payment solutions.”
The EPIC said in a statement that it would “fight ensures that the jury’s judgment and court injunctions are upheld and insist on using Google to explain its anti-competitive behavior.”
Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission also submitted brief support epics.
The 9th Circuit can issue a ruling later this year. Its decision can be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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