Google Has 14 Days to Change the Play Store

In an emergency filing in Epic v. Google, the online giant says it was given only 14 days to meet the requirements of its antitrust loss, and it’s asking the court for more time. But Google has had many, many months to start implementing these changes.

“This motion asks the Court to enter a short administrative stay to permit Google to seek, and this Court to rule on, a stay pending further appellate review of the decision entered yesterday,” the Google filing reads. “In that decision, the Court rejected Google’s appeal of the District Court’s sweeping injunction in favor of Epic Games, which will require significant changes to Google’s Android app store. An administrative stay would allow this Court to rule on Google’s forthcoming motion for a stay pending en banc review without Google having to significantly upend the Android ecosystem before the Court can address Google’s stay motion.”

The problem for Google is that this court has never shown an iota of empathy for the company. Instead, U.S. District Judge James Donato ordered Google meet with Epic and try to settle the case. And when those talks failed, a jury took just four hours to find Google guilty on all counts in this case. Judge Donato lashed out at Google during remedy hearings. And then he ordered sweeping changes to Android and the Google Play Store for a period of three year to help restore competition. He delivered that ruling in October 2024. And so Google has had plenty of time to make the necessary changes, and all the evidence it needed to know this ruling was never getting reversed.

Google was granted a stay on October 18, 2024, meaning it didn’t need to begin implementing the required changes immediately. But that’s also when the clock started ticking. Yes, it has two more weeks in which to implement the changes. But those are also correctly seen as the final two weeks in a 10 month time during which it apparently did nothing but lose its appeal of this case.

How much time does Google need? The company is asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for a 30 day extension so that it can “have time to safely come into compliance and to seek further review.” The changes that Google has said would “significantly harm user safety, limit choice, and undermine the innovation” can be made in just one month. So it could have done this ten times over already.

Google’s filing also references the remedies it needs to implement within those remaining two weeks. They are:

• Google must allow all developers to utilize third-party billing services instead of Google Play Billing
• Google must let developers communicate alternate payment methods in their own apps
• Google must let developers link to those alternate payments methods from within their own apps
• Google must let developers set their own prices
• Google is prevented from paying hardware makers and wireless carriers to exclusively preinstall the Play Store
• Google is prevented from paying developers to exclusively distribute apps and games with the Play Store
• Google must partner with Epic Games as it builds a system that enables third-party app stores in Android

Like many, I’m excited to see Fortnite reappear in the Google Play Store again. But the arrival of third-party app stores like the Epic Games Store is a much bigger win for the industry, developers, and consumers, one that will bring choice and lower prices to a monopoly platform that today is locked down to benefit only its maker. As with the similar cases we see in the U.S., EU, and elsewhere, these changes cannot happen quickly enough.

Two weeks, 30 days, whatever. It’s finally happening.