Lawyers for Google and “Fortnite” maker Epic Games are set to square off before a federal appeals court in California on Monday, as the search giant tries to overturn a jury verdict and a judge’s order forcing it to revamp its app store.
In court filings to the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, Google has argued that a trial judge made legal errors in the 2023 antitrust ruling that unfairly benefited Epic Games.
Epic, in a 2020 lawsuit, accused Google of illegally operating a monopoly over how Android device users access apps and pay for in-app transactions. The Cary, NC-based company convinced a San Francisco jury in 2023 that Google illegally stifled competition.
US District Judge James Donato called Google’s actions “deeply troubling” and said he had “never seen anything so egregious” – words that will likely haunt Google in court for years to come, experts previously told The Post.
In October, he ordered Google to allow users to download rival app stores within its Google Play store and make its app catalog available to competitors. That order is on hold as the court considers Google’s appeal.
Google is making the case that its Play store already endures fierce competition from Apple’s App Store, and that Donato unfairly allowed Epic to tell jurors that Google and Apple are not direct competitors.
Google also said Donato was wrong to issue an order impacting users and developers nationwide, and not just Epic.
The judge was acting as “a central planner responsible for product design,” Google argued in its appeal filing.
Google directed The Post to an October blog post announcing the decision to appeal, warning that the ordered changes would “cause a range of unintended consequences that will harm American consumers, developers and device makers.”
The video game maker has asked the 9th Circuit to reject Google’s appeal, and accused the firm of a “years-long strategy to suppress competition among app stores and payment solutions.”
In a statement, Epic said it will “fight to ensure that the jury’s verdict and the court’s injunction are upheld and Google is held to account for its anticompetitive behavior.”
Microsoft filed a brief in support of Epic, alongside the US Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission.
The 9th Circuit could issue a ruling later this year. Its decision can be appealed to the US Supreme Court.
In September, Epic filed its second antitrust suit against Google, accusing the tech giant of colluding with Samsung to stifle rival app developers.
Meanwhile, Google’s search engine was ruled a monopoly in August in a landmark case, and the company recently lost a bid to dismiss a third antitrust suit over its digital advertising business.
With Post wires
