Just when we thought Epic v. Google might be over, just one Supreme Court rejection away from a complete victory for Epic, both sides have agreed to settle Tuesday evening. And if Judge James Donato, who ordered Google to crack open Android for third-party stores, agrees to the changes, it might turn Epic’s victory into a lasting global one.
Previously, Judge Donato agreed to some of Epic’s biggest demands. He issued a permanent injunction that will force Google to carry rival app stores within its own Google Play Store, and give those rival stores access to the full catalog of Google Play apps, to restore competition to the Android marketplace. The injunction also forced Google to stop requiring developers to use Google Play Billing, after a jury found the company had illegally tied its app store to its payments system.
This won’t stop those F’rs from destroying sideloading
It’s almost like destroying side loading was a pre-emptive damage mitigation strategy to maintain an iron grip while surrendering a small portion of the appearance of control they maintain.
So instead of forcing them to sell off android, or silo it with a legal structural separation and say billion dollar fines for each breach, they are getting out of this with an arbitrary amount of money changing hands and hand shake deals with the least amount of regulatory interference they can manage.