The battle against Google rages on, with a one-two punch for the Internet giant.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco ordered the tech behemoth to overhaul its Android app business citing anti-competitive behavior.

According to Reuters, "for three years beginning in November, Google under the order must allow Android users to download rival app platforms and use competing in-app payment methods, and it cannot pay device makers to preinstall its app store Play."

The ruling comes in response to a case brought by "Fortnite"-maker Epic Games in 2020, alleging Google was unfairly monopolizing in-app payments and distribution in the Google Play store.

The judge's ruling to open the Play store isn't a free-for-all, however. As The Verge writes:

The injunction says that Google can “take reasonable measures” that are “strictly necessary and narrowly tailored” and are “comparable” to how it currently polices the Google Play Store. Google will be able to charge a fee for that policing, too. Epic has repeatedly argued that Google should not be able to deter third-party app stores through policing, so it’s likely Epic and Google will keep butting heads over this.

In a statement following the order, Google argued that the changes "will cause a range of unintended consequences that will harm American consumers, developers and device makers."

Meanwhile, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called the ruling a "victory" on X, and announced an Epic Games Store coming in 2025 to compete with the Play story "without Google's scare screens and Google's 30% app tax".

Breakup

The second hit to Google came on Tuesday when the DOJ made its recommended remedies to the company's monopolistic search engine business practices. The filing recommends “considering behavioral and structural remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search and Google search-related products and features — including emerging search access points and features, such as artificial intelligence — over rivals or new entrants.” Furthermore, the Justice Department has indicated that splitting up Alphabet is not off the table.

In a response to the DOJ's recommendations, Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google's Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, wrote in a blog post that "the government seems to be pursuing a sweeping agenda that will impact numerous industries and products, with significant unintended consequences for consumers, businesses, and American competitiveness." She also notes that spinning the Chrome (Google's browser) and Android divisions off the company would break them, "change their business models, raise the cost of devices, and undermine Android and Google Play in their robust competition with Apple’s iPhone and App Store."

Verdict

The DOJ has been pursuing this sweeping investigation of Alphabet for 5 years now. That is to say, their monopoly case(s!) clearly have merit. Is that to say that breaking up Alphabet is the best course of action? That's unclear. It's hard to imagine the future of the Internet without a unified Google, but it's possible.

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