FILE - The Google logo is seen at the Google headquarters in Brussels, March 23, 2010. Google is asking that a federal judge, rather than a jury, decide whether it violated U.S. antitrust laws by building a monopoly on the technology that powers online advertising. – Google is tried to confront the latest in a succession of legal attacks on its digital empire on Thursday as federal judge began to address anticompetitive practices in the app market for smartphones powered by its Android software.
At Thursday's hearing, Donato heard from experts on both sides arguing over Epic's sweeping proposed changes to Google's app store. Under Epic’s key proposals, Google would be required to make all Android apps in the Play Store available to competing stores — and also distribute rival app stores directly to consumers who want to download them. Basically, it would have to put competing app stores in its own app store to boost rivals' chances of getting discovered by consumers.
Google — which as Donato pointed out filed 90 pages of objections to Epic's proposals earlier this month — argued that its network effect advantages existed long before it gained monopoly power. At the hearing, Donato appeared skeptical of this argument, saying that while Google seems to be assuming “without any evidence” a dark, dystopian future if Epic gets its way, “there is an equally reasonable probability that it will be the best thing that has ever happened, so it is a value-neutral choice.”
As Apple does on its store for iPhone apps, Google makes billions of dollars annually from its Play Store for Android apps through a commission system that charges a fee of 15% to 30% on a variety of digital transactions. Epic and other makers of popular apps, such as Spotify and Match Group, have been attacking those in-app commissions as an abusive tactic that gouges consumers as well as them.
Google is trying to minimize the upheaval to its lucrative Android ecosystem just weeks after its lawyers
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