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.
Now need to do something about Google trying to have complete control over apps that can be installed outside the Google Play store.
Its been one step forward and then one step back with the planned dev verification undoing this win and looking to be a worse more locked down Android OS. Probably why Google came to some agreement, since they have plans to increase their control more than before.