After losing the Epic lawsuit last December, a district judge laid out a series of changes to Google Play in October. That was put on hold to allow for the appeal process, and Google filed its opening motion with a higher court today.

Oral arguments will be held in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on February 3rd. Google today explained in detail why the “liability judgment should be overturned.”

• “…the district court allowed Epic to argue that Google and Apple do not compete in the app distribution and in-app billing markets, even though Epic has already waged extensive litigation and lost that matter in its case against Apple.”

Google also argues that the “injunction should be lifted.” These are a series of changes ordered by the district judge, including allowing third-party app stores in Google Play, access to catalogs and more for a period of three years.

• “… it requires Google to build new infrastructure to provide new services to Google’s competitors, violating an established antitrust principle: companies generally have no obligation to negotiate with competitors, let alone develop new products, to support their competitors.”
• “…the district court’s injunction goes beyond Epic’s proposed remedies without explaining why it was necessary.”
• “Nor has the Court ever explained why it is in the public interest to impose additional remedies beyond those agreed to by the attorneys general of all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and two territories.”
  • Context: In December 2023, Google settled a federal lawsuit over the Play Store. It agreed to pay $700 million, simplify the sideloading process, and more.
• “And the court failed to address the significant security risks that linking, catalog access and App Store distribution pose to millions of non-party customers. Ultimately, the court ignored the impact of catalog access on the intellectual property interests of Play’s over half a million developers.”

Google has shared “key excerpts,” while the full opening brief, filed today, can be read here.