A U.S. District Judge Decides Apple’s App Store Practices: A Case Study in the Epic vs. Apple Trial

The amount of downloads to the Play store in the US is so high, in fact, that it accounts for most of the downloads on all phones in the country.

A similar case two years ago had not gone too well for Epic. In Epic v. Apple, a federal judge in Oakland, California, ordered that Apple make just one change to its App Store practices. The judge found that most of the other Apple practices that Epic viewed as anticompetitive were justified, because the iPhone maker needed to recoup its investment in developing the app marketplace. The Supreme Court is going to decide early next year on whether to review the case, and Apple has not had to comply.

But the nine-person jury in the Play store case apparently saw things through a different lens, even though Google technically allows Android apps to be downloaded from different stores — an option that Apple prohibits on the iPhone.

The unanimous verdict was reached Monday after just three hours of jury deliberations following a four-week trial. The store is the main place where hundreds of millions of people around the world download and install apps that work on smartphones powered by Google’s Android software.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney broke into a wide grin after the verdict was read and slapped his lawyers on the back and also shook the hand of a Google attorney, who he thanked for his professional attitude during the proceedings.

Donato said that if you have a problem, you can come back. He said he didn’t intend to decide the percentage fee for its products.

Google had denied any wrongdoing, saying that its sole aim was to provide a safe and attractive experience to users, especially as it faced competition from Apple, its iPhone, and its App Store.

More bad news for Google could come in mid-2024 when US district judge Amit Mehta in Washington, DC, is expected to issue his ruling on whether Google has unlawfully maintained its monopoly over web search. Testimony in that case for nearly every US state and territory ended last month.

Google previously agreed to settle with as many as 48,000 app developers but without making major changes to its business practices. It also settled with attorneys general from all 50 US states. Details of the latter settlement had not been published, pending the verdict in the Epic trial.