PANews reported on November 29 that according to Cointelegraph, Google has filed a request with a U.S. appeals court to overturn the lower court's ruling in the Epic Games antitrust lawsuit. The ruling will force Google to allow third-party app stores and payment solutions through its app market Play Store. The lower court's ruling would have allowed other payment systems, including those that support cryptocurrencies, to access Google's app stores and apps. However, in a 110-page document filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on November 27, Google argued that the ruling of a federal court judge in California "will directly undermine Google's efforts to compete with Apple and the iPhone."
Google argued that the judge should have recognized that Google competes with Apple in the smartphone space and should have looked to the judge's ruling in Epic v. Apple, which found that Apple did not violate antitrust laws. Google also argued that Judge James Donato should have heard the case himself instead of holding a jury trial because there was no jury trial in Epic v. Apple and that the ruling forced Google to compete with rival app stores, while Apple did not have to.
Epic sued Apple and Google in August 2020, accusing their app stores of restricting payment systems and charging high commissions to prevent the use of external systems. To this end, Epic launched its own payment system, which was removed from the game by the two giants. Last month, a judge asked Google to remove external payment restrictions on the Play Store and allow external download options in response to Epic's allegations.
