• by Wendy Davis , August 13, 2025

An injunction requiring Google to make sweeping changes to its app store "threatens immense reputational harm via immediate increased security concerns on the Android ecosystem," the company told a federal appellate court.

The injunction requires Google Play to host other companies' app stores, and give those companies access to Google's library of apps.

Google argues in papers filed with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that those requirements will cause "extensive irreparable harms" to "the entire Android ecosystem, including Play’s over 100 million U.S. users and over 500,000 developers."

"Experts and former national security officials agree that the injunction will make it easier for scammers, foreign adversaries, and other malicious actors to take advantage of Android users," the company argues, adding that the injunction will "hobble Google’s ability to effectively compete with Apple in the United States."

U.S. District Court Judge James Donato issued the injunction last year, after a jury determined that Google created or maintained an illegal monopoly in markets relating to Android smartphones.

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit upheld the jury verdict and Donato's order earlier this month. Those judges granted Google's emergency request to halt the injunction, but only on a short-term basis.

Google now says it will pursue further appeals at the 9th Circuit, and possibly the Supreme Court, and is seeking to pause the injunction while those appeals play out in court.

"While the Court is considering this matter, it should stay the District Court’s sweeping injunction for the balance of the appellate process," Google writes.

"Maintaining the status quo for a brief additional period while Google seeks further appellate relief will allow this Court and, if necessary, the Supreme Court."

The request comes in litigation dating to 2020, when Fortnite developer Epic Games sued both Google and Apple for allegedly violating antitrust laws.

Epic sued 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.

Officially, Google has always allowed users to sideload apps -- meaning download them from sources other than the Play Store -- and doesn't charge commissions on in-app purchases from sideloaded apps.

But Epic contended that Google, while "nominally" allowing sideloading, thwarts the process by displaying warnings about potential security risks. (Google -- which was also sued by state attorneys general -- said last year it would streamline the sideloading process.)

Epic's suit against Apple went to trial in 2021, and largely resulted in a defeat for Epic. U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Northern District of California, who presided over the non-jury trial, ruled that Epic failed to prove the bulk of its claims. 

But Epic's suit against Google went to trial and ended with a different result: a jury verdict that Google created or maintained an illegal monopoly in two “markets” -- Android app distribution, and Android in-app billing.

Google appealed the jury's finding to the 9th Circuit. Among other arguments, Google said the verdict should have been precluded on the grounds that it was inconsistent with Rogers' ruling in Epic's suit against Apple. Rogers said in her ruling that Google and Apple compete to distribute apps.

The 9th Circuit rejected Google's argument on that point, writing that the claims in Epic's suits against Apple and Google were not "identical."

"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 wrote 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."