The legal battle between Google and Epic Games continues to rage, with the US courtRulingGoogle must open its Google Play Store to third-party app stores within three years, a ruling set to take effect in mid-October. Faced with the potential repercussions, Google has again filed a petition with the US Supreme Court, seeking a stay of the injunction and a full review.
According to documents filed with the court, Google is requesting a temporary stay from the Supreme Court by October 17th to prevent the injunction Epic Games won last October from taking effect. Google argues that a direct implementation of the ruling would pose serious risks to the platform, developers, and even consumers.
In the document, Google emphasized that forcing the Google Play Store to open up would lead to a flood of malicious, pirated, and even fraudulent app stores entering the Android ecosystem, posing a significant threat to cybersecurity. This would also mean that developers would have to spend more time tracking unauthorized app versions across various stores, increasing operational costs and risks.
Google further pointed out that the ruling will allow some developers to use Google Play Store related services by circumventing the payment mechanism without paying the corresponding fees, which will also deal a blow to their business model.
In contrast to Apple's partial compromise in the App Store case, Epic Games' lawsuit against Google was a near-perfect victory. Besides forcing the opening of third-party stores, the court also prohibited Google from signing pre-installation agreements with phone manufacturers for the Google Play Store and required developers to use Google's payment mechanism.
In contrast, the outcome of the Epic Games vs. Apple lawsuit was only over payment options.Get a small concession, Google is clearly facing greater pressure for change.
In fact, as early as 2024, both Google and Apple appealed to the Supreme Court, requesting intervention and a stay of the ruling, but the court chose not to hear the case at the time. Given that the scope of change facing Google is far greater than Apple's, the outside world is watching to see whether the Supreme Court will take a different stance this time, at least granting a stay of the injunction.
However, if the Supreme Court does not intervene, Google will have to adjust the Android ecosystem and the operation of the Google Play Store in a short period of time. This will not only affect its huge advertising and profit-sharing income, but may also redefine the application distribution model on the Android platform.
