Update, October 18 at 5 pm ET: District Judge James Donato granted an administrative stay. This effectively puts a pause on Donato's previous order, which was due to take effect shortly, until the Ninth Circuit resolves Google's stay motion. In a statement given to Engadget, a Google spokesperson said:
“We are pleased with the District Court's decision to temporarily suspend implementation of dangerous remedies demanded by Epic, while the Court of Appeals considers our request to further suspend the remedies while we appeal. These remedies threaten Google Play's ability to provide a secure service and secure experience and we look forward to continuing to make our case to protect 100 million US Android users, more than 500,000 US developers, and thousands of partners who have benefited from our platforms.”
The original story continues.
Google has formally filed a motion (PDF) asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to put a pause about the order forcing the company to open the Play Store to competition. If you recall, Google lost an antitrust lawsuit brought by Epic Games after a federal jury determined that the company had an illegal monopoly over app distribution and in-app billing services for Android devices. Earlier this month, US District Judge James Donato ordered Google to allow third-party app stores to access the Google Play app catalog and to allow those stores to be downloaded from its store. Now, Google is asking the court for a stay of that order while it appeals the decision in Epic's antitrust lawsuit, saying it will expose 100 million Android users in the US to “substantial new security risks.”
The company called the order “harmful and unjustified” and said that if allowed, it will threaten Google's ability to “provide a safe and reliable user experience.” It argued that if it makes third-party app stores available for download from Google Play, people might think the company is vouching for them, which could create “real risks for (its) users.” Those app stores could have “less rigorous protections,” Google explained, which could expose users to harmful and malicious apps.
He also said that giving third-party stores access to Play's catalog could hurt companies that don't want their products to be available alongside inappropriate or malicious content. Giving third-party stores access to your entire library could give “ill-intentioned” stores a “semblance of legitimacy.” Additionally, it argued that allowing developers to connect from their apps “creates a significant risk of deceptive links,” as bad actors could use the feature for phishing attacks to compromise users' devices and steal their data.
One of the main changes proposed by the court is to allow developers to eliminate Google Play billing as an option, allowing them to offer their apps to Android users without having to pay a commission to the company. However, Google said that by allowing developers to eliminate its billing system, it could “force an option that may not have the safeguards and features that users expect.”
In its filing, Google emphasized that the three weeks the court gave it to make these sweeping changes are too short for a “herculean task.” It creates an “unacceptable security risk” that could lead to significant issues affecting the functionality of users' Android devices, it said. The company also questioned why the court sided with Epic in its antitrust lawsuit, while it sided with Apple in a similar case also brought by the video game company. “It is food for thought that Apple, which requires all applications to go through its App Store, is not a monopolist, but Google, which built options into the Android operating system so that device manufacturers can pre-install and users can download stores of competitive applications, if it were.
Epic Games provided Engadget with the following statement: “The jury verdict and court order were clear: Google's Play Store anti-competitive practices are illegal. Google is simply creating fear and falsely using security as a pretext to delay court-mandated changes.” court. This “is Google's latest effort to protect its control over Android and continue charging exorbitant fees. “The court order must take effect quickly so that developers and consumers can benefit from competition in the mobile ecosystem.”
