One month after Epic Games and Google seemingly stopped fighting over the future of Android app distribution, they were back in a San Francisco courtroom today — where Judge James Donato just ordered Google to make it easier to install rival app stores on Android.
‘That is not acceptable’: Judge orders Google to make rival app store installs easier
Judge Donato was not having Google’s ‘anticompetitive friction.‘
It’s been nearly three years since a jury unanimously decided that Google had an illegal monopoly over Android apps, and almost two years since Judge Donato decided the best way of undoing that monopoly would be to crack open Android app distribution. Donato ordered Google to carry rival Android app stores inside its own Google Play Store, and to provide rivals with complecte access to Google’s full catalog of apps, for several years.
