A federal judge ordered Google to pry open its Android app store to competition Monday, continuing a wave of challenges to its power and to that of other U.S. technology giants.

U.S. District Judge James Donato largely sided with Epic Games, creator of the Fortnite video games, which won a jury verdict last year that found the Google Play app store operated as an illegal monopoly. Donato was tasked with mandating changes to Google’s app store to fix the behavior that was deemed illegal.

Google said it will appeal the decision and ask courts to halt the judge’s order until appeals are completed. Epic didn’t have an immediate comment.

If the judge’s decision holds up, it has the potential to transform Android phones into the world’s leading laboratory for how technology might change if it were less controlled by Silicon Valley titans.

“I think this is a big win for consumers,” said Gene Kimmelman, a former Justice Department deputy associate attorney general under the Biden administration.

He said the legal order was likely to create more opportunities for businesses that want to offer app stores that compete with Google.

Kimmelman said it may also give legal ammunition to force open Google’s web search service to competition. In a separate case, a federal judge recently ruled that Google’s lucrative search business was also an illegal monopoly. That judge has said he intends to decide by next summer on consequences, which could include a breakup of Google.

Donato is requiring two significant changes to Google’s oversight of Android apps in the United States. These have the potential to change how people download apps to Android phones and pay for digital purchases from apps.

The judge required Google to remove roadblocks that largely discourage businesses from making Android apps available to download from their websites or from digital storefronts not controlled by Google. This hasn’t been the norm for smartphone apps, but it’s similar to how people typically download computer software like Zoom or Microsoft Office from those companies’ websites.

Second, Donato said app makers can offer people more options to pay for digital purchases like Disney Plus streaming subscriptions or extra lives in the “Candy Crush” smartphone game. Google generally requires in-app digital purchases to route through its own payment system. Google collects fees on those sales.

The jury in the Epic case last year found that Google broke the law in how it restricted app downloads and mandated the company handle all digital app purchases.

Donato’s order is among the legal and regulatory changes around the world that are chipping away at 15 years of smartphone app control by Google and Apple. Together, these challenges could spark a boom of fresh ideas in apps, through which people make an estimated $170 billion in yearly purchases, and drain profitable income from Google and Apple.

App makers have generally said it’s too soon to know how people’s experiences might change with Android apps. Many of them believe Donato’s order could bring dramatic changes to the internet economy and potentially lower prices for what people buy in apps.

Proton, which makes email and digital file storage services that compete with Google, said that it was “absurd” that people who want to buy its products through Android apps have to go through Proton’s biggest rival to do so. Proton also has to pay Google a fee for each of those purchases.

Proton CEO Andy Yen also said Google’s effective control of which apps people can and can’t access on Android phones gives the company too much power over people’s lives and businesses’ financial livelihood.

“Today’s decision strikes a blow against Google’s stranglehold on the internet,” Yen said. He cautioned that Google will find ways to “bend” the rules without strict oversight.

Donato’s order is a bare-bones requirement for changes to fix Google’s illegal behavior. It’s up to Google to work out the details of complying, with oversight from the judge and a newly created technical committee of members picked in part by Google and Epic.

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(c) Washington Post