Google’s epic battle with Epic Games in court is not yet over, but it is nearing a critical point at which Google will need to convince the courts to rule more in its favor, or deal with the consequences of Epic’s current win, and Google is leaning toward the former strategy with its attempt to get the Supreme Court involved.
This week, Google is asking the Supreme Court to step in and “save it” from the Epic ruling, which threatens Google’s complete and total hold over the Play Store and Android’s app ecosystem. More specifically, the way apps are distributed and how transactions from those apps are handled.
When Epic took Google to court over this case, it alleged Google was using the Play Store as a monopoly, and the courts agreed. Google’s Play Store was ruled a monopoly , and it would be required to make some changes. Those changes are supposed to take place in October. That is, unless Google can get the courts to hold off a little longer on the injunction from the ruling.
Google is elevating its Epic case ruling to the Supreme Court for appeal
Google is going to appeal its Epic ruling with the Supreme Court, but before it does that, it’s asking the 9th Circuit District Court to put the injunction on hold again. This would presumably be the last time. Google can’t elevate its appeal beyond the Supreme Court, so once that appeal goes through, if the Supreme Court still ends up siding with the initial ruling, then Google will have to make the requested changes.
Those changes include a handful of things. Such as allowing app developers to use whatever payment process they want. As of now, developers are required to use Google Play Billing. That will likely be changing soon. Google will also have to allow developers to link to other payment methods and link to other ways of downloading apps .
Google is planning to submit its appeal to the Supreme Court by October 27 . That’s a little more than a month away. If Google is granted another stay on the injunction, it would continue until the appeal date.
