A federal judge in California ruled this week that Google must stop making it difficult for consumers to install third-party Android app stores, saying the corporate giant was using “anticompetitive friction” to prevent people from doing so.
It was the latest chapter in the years-long legal battle between Google and Epic Games, which originally accused the corporate giant in 2020 of restricting easy access to third-party app stores and non-Google payment methods, and behaving as a monopoly.
Installing a third-party Android app store such as Aptoide Games hasn’t been a smooth process. For example, if you go to the Play Store on an Android phone and search for “Aptoide,” you’ll see a pop-up section at the top that asks, “Looking for Aptoide Games?” You then have to click on a “Go to page” link. On that next page, it shows the Aptoide Games app, but instead of an Install button, there is a View button. Selecting the View button finally takes you to the Install link.
Also, if you search for “app stores” in the Play Store, a pop-up appears with the question, “Looking for app stores?” with a Go to page link that takes you to the app stores menu.
Northern District Judge James Donato was not thrilled when Epic Games attorneys illustrated all of this in court, The Verge reports. He called those extra steps “anticompetitive friction” and “not acceptable” and ordered Google to remove them from the installation process by next week. In his ruling, Donato said that if someone searches “app stores” or “store for apps” — or any similar combination of search terms — the Play Store must show a list of such stores.
He also ruled that Google must replace the “view” button with “install” on the screen that shows the third-party app and that Google must remove the “Looking for an app store?” screen and instead must show the list of app stores.
Jason Howell, co-host of the Android Faithful podcast, said replacing the View button with an Install button was puzzling, since most apps in the Play Store search results don’t show it either, not until you click on the app itself. “It seems Google was likely replicating how it presents its normal apps in listings for third-party app stores, not immediately doing anything punitive,” Howell told CNET.
Howell did say it was “concerning” that consumers were being directed to a separate page of third-party app stores. “I’m happy to know they will address that.”
Google customers have been able to install third-party app stores on Android phones throughout the operating system’s 18-year history. But prior to July, you could not install those apps from the Play Store. Instead, you had to use the more cumbersome method of sideloading, in which you install the app from an unofficial source or computer. It often required changing the security settings on the phone.
That changed in July, when Donato ruled that Google must allow people to download third-party apps in the Play Store.
But Google added speed bumps to that process, Epic Games complained to the court last month. Its lawyers argued that “Google will not include any app stores in the results,” and instead will direct them to a separate page showing a list of app stores. The lawyers argued that “will confuse users and will make app stores harder to find and less likely to be used” and that they “will just give up” if they don’t see those stores on the initial search results page.
Representatives for Google and Epic Games did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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