Alphabet Ordered to Lift Restrictions on Rival Marketplaces
A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that Alphabet must lift restrictions preventing developers from setting up rival marketplaces that compete with its Google Play Store. This decision upends the search giant’s dominance in the lucrative Android app market.
The ruling, handed down on Monday, is a significant victory for Epic Games in its ongoing antitrust battle against Alphabet. The technology giant’s app store generated .66 billion in sales in 2020, making it a key revenue stream for the company.
Epic Games, the maker of the popular video game Fortnite, successfully argued that Google had abused its power in the Android app market through its restrictive policies on the Google Play store. This ruling is a blow to Alphabet’s control over the app distribution ecosystem.
Following the news, Alphabet shares fell by as much as 2.5% to 2.96 in New York. Despite this drop, the company’s stock had seen a 20% increase in value so far this year, up until the end of last week.
