Sundar Pichai’s Google massive loss: Code reveals Alphabet company’s secret of…, will it affect …

In a major development, tech giant Google on Thursday lost its appeal to overturn a court verdict that ordered changes to its Play Store. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected the Alphabet company’s argument that the earlier trial was unfair and that the trial judge made legal errors in the antitrust case that unfairly benefited “Fortnite” maker Epic Games. Notably, Epic Games filed a lawsuit against Google in 2020, accusing Google of antitrust violations. Following the court’s verdict, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney took to X and wrote, “Total victory in the Epic vs Google case!”

What Was The Case?

Epic lodged a case against tech giant Google, accusing the company of monopolising how users access apps on Android devices and how they make payments for transactions within those apps. In 2023, succeeded in convincing the San Francisco jury that the Alphabet company illegally stifled competition.

In October this year, a US district judge named James Donato ordered to improve healthy competition by allowing users to download competing apps through its Play Store. The courThis will give the competition access to the full catalog of Google Play Store. Along with this, many such practices will be stopped, which used to prevent the competition from growing or becoming stronger than the Play Store. A big issue in this is the use of Google Play billing system, which non-Google apps have to use.

What Does Google Say?

After the count’s verdict, Google’s regulatory head Lee-Anne Mulholland wrote, ‘This decision will harm the safety of users, limit their options and also reduce innovation, which used to be the center of Android’s ecosystem.’

‘Our priority is to keep users, developers and partners safe. Along with this, we have to keep our platform safe and we will continue our appeal,’ he wrote.

Google’s secret code Epic got exposed

Notably, Epic used a secret code in its game called Fortnite. The code bypassed Google’s payment system. Following which, the tech giant removed the game from Play Store. During the probe, Google’s internal mail emerged, which revealed that Epic had planned to create a separate app store with other developers.

The new app store could have become a challenge for the tech giant. Before this, Google removed Fortnite. As the email came to light, Google was found responsible for creating a monopoly. Currently, the company has the option to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court

News