Google Play Store Injunction Paused By Court

A federal appeals court late last week granted Google's emergency request to temporarily halt an injunction that would have required the company to make sweeping changes to its app marketplace.

The move, by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, came just one day after the same judges affirmed a jury's finding that the Play Store policies violated antitrust law. The panel also upheld U.S. District Court Judge James Donato's injunction requiring Google Play to host other companies' app stores, and give those companies access to Google's library of apps.

Google on Friday sought an "emergency administrative stay" of Donato's order while it pursues further appeals.

"The injunction hobbles Google’s ability to compete, inflicts reputational harms, increases security and privacy risks for millions of users, magnifies burdens on device makers and over 500,000 developers, and requires Google to deal with rivals," the company said in its petition.

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Google also said that without a stay, it would have to comply with some provisions in the injunction within 14 days.

That window "will not afford Google sufficient time to obtain a ruling on a further stay before much of the injunction goes into effect, or even to come safely into compliance with the injunction," the company argued.

The appellate panel ordered Google to file its request for a more longer-term stay by August 8.

The emergency stay marks the latest development in a battle dating to 2020, when Fortnite developer Epic Games sued both Google and Apple in the Northern District of California for allegedly violating antitrust laws.

Epic brought suit soon after both Google and Apple removed Fortnite from their mobile app marketplaces for allegedly attempting to bypass Google and Apple commissions on in-app purchases. Both Google and Apple charge a commission on purchases made in apps that have been downloaded from Google Play or the App store.

U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who presided over the Epic-Apple trial, ruled in 2021 that Epic failed to prove the bulk of its claims. 

Nearly two years later, Epic's suit against Google went to trial and ended in a jury verdict that Google created or maintained an illegal monopoly in two “markets” -- Android app distribution, and Android in-app billing. The jury also found that Google wrongly tied company's ability to distribute through the Play store to Google's payment system.

Google appealed to the 9th Circuit. Among other arguments, Google said the verdict was inconsistent with Rogers' ruling in Epic's suit against Apple -- including her finding that Google and Apple compete to distribute apps.

The 9th Circuit rejected Google's argument, ruling that the antitrust issues differed -- in part, because the claims against Google focused only on apps within the Android system.

"Epic’s claims against Apple involved meaningfully different commercial realities and theories of harm from its claims against Google," 9th Circuit Judge Margaret McKeown wrote in an opinion joined by Danielle Forrest, and Gabriel Sanchez.

McKeown added that it was "of little consequence that Apple and Google were previously found to compete" in the market for mobile games because the claims against Google "focused on gaming within the Android ecosystem."

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