SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge said Wednesday he will make sweeping changes to Google’s Android app store, seeking to punish the company for creating a system that a jury has ruled is an illegal monopoly that has harmed millions of consumers and app developers.
During a three-hour hearing in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge James Donato made it clear that the upcoming reform he is considering will likely include a mandate requiring Google’s Play Store for Android phones to offer consumers the choice to download alternative app stores.
Donato has been considering how to punish Google since December last year. a jury declared the Play Store a monopoly after a four-week trial. The verdict focused on Google’s near-exclusive control over the distribution of apps designed for Android phones and the billing systems for the digital commerce that takes place within them — a system that generates billions of dollars in annual revenue for the company.
In its protest against the judge’s potential demands, Google has raised the specter of consumer devices becoming infected with malicious software downloaded from third-party app stores, leading to “security chaos.”
Donato, however, repeatedly stressed the need for a major overhaul of the Play Store, even though it would cause Google headaches and huge bills, which the company estimates could reach $600 million, depending on what the judge orders.
“We’re going to break down the barriers, that’s what’s going to happen,” Donato told Google attorney Glenn Pomerantz. “If you’ve built a mountain of bad behavior, you’re going to have to move that mountain.”
Donato said he hopes to have a decision outlining the framework for changes to the Play Store within a few weeks, possibly before Labor Day weekend.
Google’s tactics in the penalties phase of the Play Store case could be a precursor to its strategy in a similar round of so-called “remedy hearings” that will be held in an even larger antitrust case that resulted in a judge who gives the dominant search engine a brand name as an illegal monopoly. Those hearings, which will focus on the crown jewel of Google’s empire, are scheduled to begin on September 6 in Washington, D.C.
In the Play Store case, Donato appears to still be wrestling with the question of how much time he should give Google to implement changes to the Android operating system and the Play Store, and how long the restrictions he imposes should remain in place.
Google wants 12 to 16 months to make the adjustments to ensure a smooth transition and prevent outages that could impact the performance of Android smartphones. Epic Games, the video game maker that filed the antitrust lawsuit that resulted in the Play Store’s monopoly, claims Google could do it all in about three months at a cost of about $1 million.
Donato didn’t specify what kind of timeline he has in mind, but he did indicate that he won’t give Google as much time as the company wants to make the required changes.
“Google tells me it will take ages for all this to happen, but I am skeptical,” the judge said. “I doubt that all that brain power can solve these problems in less than 16 months.”
Epic Games wants all of Donato’s orders to remain in effect for six years, but the judge said Wednesday that he thinks the proposal is too long. He wondered aloud whether a five-year term for his order would be more appropriate. Google wants the order to expire after one or two years.
Donato assured Google that he has no plans to overhaul the company’s operations, even though he expects the company to change dramatically.
“The whole point is to grow a garden of competing app stores,” the judge said.