Google doesn’t want to open the Play Store, calls for an emergency stop

Epic sued Google and Apple in separate lawsuits to break up the monolithic app distribution stores based on Android and iOS, respectively. While Epic lost the Apple lawsuit, the company received a positive ruling in the Google lawsuit. Earlier this month, Google was ordered to make sweeping changes to the Play Store, including allowing third-party stores in it from November. While Google is appealing the decision, the company has now also filed a request to suspend the operational order.

Google has asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to suspend proposed changes to Android and Google Play pending an appeal of the underlying decision.

Google’s appeal of the original Epic vs. Google order is scheduled to be heard tomorrow. If the court grants the request, Google will have some time to make changes to its platforms. But if the court rejects that appeal, Google will still have to meet the November deadline, even as the company explores other avenues for appeal. The company is leaving nothing to chance, as an application for a stay has also been filed with the appeal court.

In this stay request, Google mentions that the court gave the company only three weeks to make many sweeping changes to the Google Play Store, a “Herculean task that creates an unacceptable risk of security deficiencies in the Android ecosystem.”

At the request of a single competitor, Epic Games, the district court ordered sweeping redesigns of Play that will expose over 100 million U.S. users of Android devices to significant new security risks and force fundamental changes to Google’s contractual and commercial relationships with hundreds of users Thousands of Google partners.

Google’s motion to stay argues that there is a lot at stake if the changes are implemented. For example, if Google is forced to distribute third-party app stores through the Google Play Store, users will be confused as to whether Google vouches for those app stores. Allowing competing app stores to offer the entire Google Play Store app catalog would also provide a “facade of legitimacy” to any malicious third-party app store.

Google argues that these concerns are compounded by the fact that many of the mandated changes must be operational by November 1, 2024. Both Android and the Google Play Store are used by millions of users in the US every day and are pushing for an update of this magnitude could lead to “major unintended problems affecting the functionality of devices, the privacy and security interests of millions of users, and business success of device manufacturers and developers.” Therefore, Google argues that the court should stay these sweeping changes until it rules on Google’s appeal.