US Judge Orders Google to Simplify Third-Party App Store Installation on Android

US District Judge James Donato, at a recent hearing, criticized Google for placing excessive obstacles in the way of installing competing app stores on the Android platform and ordered the company to simplify the installation process for third-party app stores. The lawsuit stems from a 2023 jury verdict that found Google had illegally monopolized the Android app distribution market. In 2024, Judge Donato ruled that the remedy for the monopoly was to open up Android app distribution channels, ordering Google to list rival app stores on the Google Play Store and to provide competitors with access to its full app catalog.

At the recent hearing, Epic Games presented a live demonstration to the court, showing that Google still makes the installation of third-party app stores overly cumbersome. Epic lawyer Yonatan Even noted that when users search for terms such as "app store" on Google Play, third-party app stores do not appear; instead, physical retailers like Walmart are shown. The judge called this "unacceptable and must be fixed," and required that the fix cover all search variants with at least 70% accuracy. Google's counsel agreed and committed to making the changes.

Additionally, the judge observed that users installing a third-party app store must first click a "View" button before proceeding to click "Install," and expressed strong dissatisfaction with this step, ordering that it be changed.