Google asks court to halt app store overhaul as it mounts new appeal

By Mike Scarcella

Aug 1 (Reuters) - Alphabet’s Google on Friday asked a U.S. appeals court to keep on hold an order that required sweeping reforms to the technology giant’s app store Play, after losing a key ruling this week in a lawsuit brought by “Fortnite” video game maker Epic Games.

Google in a new filing to the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it planned to further challenge the lower court’s October injunction, which a panel of appeals judges upheld on Thursday in a unanimous decision.

The injunction, which was paused while the 9th Circuit considered the case, required Google to restore competition by allowing users to download rival app stores within its Play store and by making Play's app catalog available to those competitors, among other reforms.

Google said the lower court’s injunction is expected to take effect in 14 days absent a court order blocking it. The filing said an administrative stay of the order was necessary to let the company later ask the full appeals court to take up the appeal, and if necessary seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Google and Epic did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Epic in its 2020 lawsuit accused Google of monopolizing how consumers access apps on Android devices and pay for transactions within apps. The Cary, North Carolina-based company convinced a San Francisco jury in 2023 that Google illegally stifled competition.

U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco issued his Play store injunction against Google in October after a jury earlier ruled for Epic. Google has denied any wrongdoing.

In upholding the injunction on Thursday, a 9th Circuit panel said the record in Epic's lawsuit was “replete with evidence that Google’s anticompetitive conduct entrenched its dominance."

The case is Epic Games v. Google, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 24-6256.

For Epic: Gary Bornstein of Cravath, Swaine & Moore

For Google: Jessica Ellsworth of Hogan Lovells

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