Could Judge Donato actually force Google to give away its apps?
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Despite Epic Games’ surprise win at trial, I was skeptical that Judge James Donato would seriously consider forcing Google to let the Epic Games Store live inside its own Google Play Store, and give it access to every app inside Google Play. Those were two of the biggest demands that Epic revealed in April.
But Judge Donato is indeed considering them. He’s ordered Google to calculate the costs of complying with those demands by June 24th, one month from today:
Google will file by June 24, 2024, a proffer stating in detail the tech work required and economic costs, if any, to provide “Catalog Access” and “Library Porting” to competing app stores for a period of up to 6 years. See MDL Dkt. No. 952 at 7. The proffer may also address tech work and economic costs for the distribution of third-party app stores through the Google Play Store.
MDL Dkt. No. 952 is Epic’s 16-page list of asks, and 7 is the page that would force Google to give other app stores access to the entire Google Play catalog of apps, should Epic get its way. Take a peek:
Just below “Catalog Access and Library Porting” is the other huge ask Judge Donato seems to be considering: that Google would carry other third-party app stores within its Google Play store for six years.
According to the order, Epic will get a chance to question Google’s experts and engineers about the accuracy of their estimates, and file a rebuttal, before a final hearing on August 14th. In an evidentiary hearing yesterday, Judge Donato seemed extremely skeptical of Google’s arguments against Epic’s proposed remedies, but also suggested that some of Epic’s asks were “open-ended and too vague.”
If you’re curious about Epic’s other asks, I break them all down for you in this story. Following its win, Epic has indeed been working on a version of its game store for Android.
