In a historic decision, United States District Judge James Donato has ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competition for the next three years. This ruling, a significant victory for Epic Games, stems from the Epic v Google trial, which has concluded with a permanent injunction against Google. The court has ordered Google to allow competing third-party app stores to operate directly on its marketplace, giving developers a much-needed alternative. Additionally, Google is obligated to permit developers to use their own billing systems, bypassing Google’s standard 30% commission fees.
This landmark decision will undeniably impact Google’s mobile business significantly. For years, Google has generated billions of dollars annually from the 30% commission it charged developers on the Play Store, despite not releasing its own games. Data from the FTC v Microsoft case in 2023 reveals that Google made approximately $12.4 billion in mobile revenue through the Play Store in 2022. This figure represents a substantial 13% share of the global mobile gaming market, which reached $92.2 billion in revenue that year.
As expected, Google has announced its intention to appeal Judge Donato’s ruling. Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s VP of regulatory affairs, has penned a detailed blog post outlining the company’s reasoning for the appeal. This significant legal battle will likely continue, with far-reaching implications for the future of the mobile app market.
