The latest threat will unfold in a federal court, where a jury will decide whether Google’s digital payment processing system in the Play Store that distributes apps for phones running on its Android software has been illegally driving up prices for developers and consumers
Google on Monday will try to protect a lucrative part of its internet empire at the same time it is still engaged in the biggest US antitrust trial in a quarter century.
The latest threat will unfold in a federal court, where a 10-person jury will decide whether Google’s digital payment processing system in the Play Store that distributes apps for phones running on its Android software has been illegally driving up prices for developers and consumers.
The trial before US District Judge James Donato is scheduled to last until just before Christmas and include testimony from longtime Google executive Sundar Pichai, who is now Chief Executive Officer of the company’s parent, Alphabet Inc.
Pichai recently took the witness stand in Washington during an antitrust trial pitting Google’s long-running dominance of internet search against the US Department of Justice’s attempt to undercut it on the basis the company has been abusing its power to stifle competition and innovation.
The case targeting Google’s Play Store is being brought by Epic Games, the maker of the popular Fortnite video game, which lost in a similar trial in 2021 which focused on many of the issues in Apple’s iPhone app store.
Although a federal judge sided with Apple on most fronts in that trial, the outcome opened one potential crack in the company’s empire that it has built around the iPhone.
The judge and an appeals court both determined Apple should permit apps to provide links to other payment options, a change that could undermine the 15 per cent to 30 per cent commissions that Apple as well as Google collect on digital purchases made within a mobile app. Apple is appealing that part of the ruling to the US Supreme Court, where Epic is also challenging most elements of the case that it lost.
Epic is now taking aim at Google’s commission system, even though Android software is already set up to permit other stores, like Samsung’s installed on its phones, distribute apps that work on the operating system.
Even so, Epic maintains that Google still maintains a grip on the Android app ecosystem and the payment system attached to it and has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to stifle competition.
Much like Apple did in its trial, Google defends its commissions as a way to be compensated for all money that it invests into its Play Store and asserts that the controls over it are a way to safeguard the security of the tens of millions of people in the US who download apps for phones powered by Android.
Google initially was going to have to defend itself against multiple adversaries in the trial, but in September it settled allegations that had been brought against the Play Store by state attorneys general and just last week resolved a case being pursued by Match Group, the owner of Tinder and other online dating services.