Found guilty last year of abuse of dominant position on Android applications, Google is officially appealing. On Wednesday, the search engine took the matter to a US federal court. He thus hopes to avoid implementing the important changes that were imposed on him at first instance. A first hearing is scheduled for February.
Corrective measures
In this case, the Mountain View company was sued by Epic Games. The publisher of the video game Fortnite, which accused it of having implemented anti-competitive practices to maintain its near-monopoly on the distribution of mobile applications on Android smartphones, thus forcing developers to pay it commissions on each purchase and subscription.
In October, the judge in charge of the case defined a list of corrective measures, the implementation of which was suspended pending the conclusion of the appeal proceedings – and potentially an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. Its instructions will be in effect for three years, time to allow the arrival of real rivals to the Play Store, Google’s mobile application store.
Third-party stores on the Play Store
During this period, third-party application stores will be able to be present directly on the Play Store, greatly facilitating their installation by Android smartphone users. And they will be able to automatically offer the entire Play Store catalog, unless developers refuse individually.
The judge also ordered the end of financial agreements that the search engine had concluded with mobile operators and manufacturers so that they would not pre-install rival application stores on their smartphones. And also with publishers, including Activision and Nintendo, so that they only distribute their video games on the Play Store.
Finally, justice calls into question the obligation to use Google’s payment system. Application developers will be able to go through another service. They will also be able to freely define their prices. However, the judge believes that the company will still be able to charge a commission, without specifying its amount.
Microsoft in the starting blocks
Due to Google’s appeal, potential changes to Android won’t take effect for several years. A setback also for Microsoft which had promised to benefit from the judgment favorable to Epic. And thus launch an Xbox games store on the Google system.
The Redmond giant has, however, just recognized that its plans will not materialize immediately. “Our team developed the functionalityassures Sarah Bond, president of the Xbox division. It will be launched as soon as the court’s final decision is rendered.” Google responds that Microsoft can already sell games from its application. On condition, however, that you donate 30% of purchases to him.
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