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A US federal court ordered Google to fix how the Play Store handles searches for rival app marketplaces within one week. US District Judge James Donato issued the order on August 13 during a hearing in San Francisco, as part of the long-running Epic Games versus Google antitrust case.
Donato ruled the company’s attempt to list third-party apps inside Google Play was loaded with what he called the "anticompetitive friction", and gave Google one week to make the ordered changes
The order came after Epic's legal team showed in open court that typing "store for apps" into the Play Store's search bar returned results for physical retailers like Walmart instead of any competing app marketplace. "anticompetitive friction", and gave Google one week to stri ..
Google has until August 20 to fix three specific issues: search results, one-tap installs, and normal listing behaviour for rival stores inside Play.
Judge Donato found that Google's Play Store search buried rival app stores behind irrelevant results, even though Android did technically allow sideloading and third-party stores for more than a decade.
Epic's attorney Yonatan Even demonstrated the problem live in court, and Google's own counsel agreed to all three fixes on the record. This hearing was a compliance check rather than a fresh trial, since a jury had already ruled in December 2023 that Google held an illegal monopoly over Android app distribution.
Judge Donato set the original remedy in October 2024, which required Google to carry rival Android app stores inside Google Play and give them full access to its app catalogue. Google began doing so on July 22, and this latest hearing examined how well the company had followed through.
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Android users searching the Play Store will soon see accurate results when looking for third-party app stores, rather than unrelated retail listings. Installing a rival store should also become a simple one-tap process, similar to installing any regular app, instead of routing users through extra warning screens or sideloading steps.
Aptoide Games became the first rival store to appear inside the US Play Store on August 10, arriving through Google's new Play Catalog Access Program, which charges a 5,000 dollar annual review fee and enforces a 1 percent malware threshold for participating stores.
Aptoide has built Android storefronts since 2009 and serves around 25 million monthly users across more than 400,000 apps, with the US as its largest market. Reports suggest visibility of rival stores inside Play was inconsistent to date, something this court order is meant to correct.
