Google found itself in a tough spot last week, when forces outside of its control appeared to be trying to make fundamental changes to the way the Play Store and Android billing operate. The aftermath of Google’s long-running battle with Epic Games culminated in the issuance of an injunction against Google on November 1st, requiring it to remove or change a number of core Play Store policies. But with just a few weeks to go until the end of October, Google has largely dodged this bullet, winning a temporary administrative stay on the largest portions of the injunction.
Following last week’s news, Google rushed to seek some legal protection for itself and filed a motion to stay the order. Today, we learned that Judge James Donato at least partially accepted Google’s argument, with the injunction largely on hold following Google’s appeal (via The Verge). One concession, which remains in effect starting Nov. 1, will prevent Google from entering into agreements with other phone manufacturers that would prohibit them from shipping hardware with non-Google app stores installed.
While this is a big win for Google, it’s not the permanent solution the company was looking for, so this legal battle is far from over. Still, the company’s spirits are clearly high, and Google shared this statement: Android permissions:
We are satisfied with the district court’s decision to temporarily halt implementation of the dangerous remedies requested by Epic. The Court of Appeals will consider our request to further suspend the relief pending appeal. These remedies threaten Google Play’s ability to provide a safe and secure experience, and we want to protect our 100 million U.S. Android users, more than 500,000 U.S. developers, and our platform. We look forward to continuing to advocate to protect the thousands of partners who benefit from.
This will affect not just Epic, but all other companies looking forward to the new open environment that the court injunction seems to usher in. That included major companies like Microsoft, which had plans to upgrade its Android Xbox app and start selling games directly. Perhaps that will no longer happen.
