Google loses appeal in antitrust battle with Fortnite maker
The unanimous ruling issued by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals delivers a double-barreled legal blow for Google, which has been waylaid in three separate antitrust trials that resulted in different pillars of its internet empire being declared as domineering scofflaws monopolies since late 2023.
The unsuccessful appeal represents a major victory for video game maker Epic Games, which launched a legal crusade targeting Google's Play Store for Android apps and Apple's iPhone app store nearly five years ago in an attempt to bypass exclusive payment processing systems that charged 15% to 30% commissions on in-app transactions.
The jury's December 2023 rebuke of Google's app store for Android-powered smartphones began a cascade of setbacks that includes monopoly judgements against the company's ubiquitous search engine last year and the technology underlying its digital ad network earlier this year.
Although not as lucrative as Google's search engine or ad system, the Play Store for Android apps has long been a gold mine that generated billions of dollars in annual revenue by taking a 15% to 30% cut from in-app transactions funneled through the company's own payment processing system.
ADVERTISEMENT
Following a month-long trial, a nine-person jury determined that Google had rigged its system to thwart alternative app stores from offering better deals to consumers and software developers. That verdict resulted in US District Judge James Donato ordering Google to tear down digital walls shielding the Play Store from competition, triggering the company's appeal to overturn the jury's finding and void the judge's mandated shakeup.
But a three-judge panel that heard Google's appeal in February rejected its lawyers' contention that Donato erred by allowing the case to be determined by a jury that deviated from the market definition outlined by another federal judge who mostly sided with Apple in Epic's case against the iPhone maker's app store.
Epic's lawsuit "was replete with evidence that Google's anticompetitive conduct entrenched its dominance, causing the Play Store to benefit from network effects", the judges wrote in the decision.
The ruling "will significantly harm user safety, limit choice, and undermine the innovation that has always been central to the Android ecosystem", Google's vice president of regulatory affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland said in a statement.
Unless Google can extend the enforcement delay placed on Donato's order issued last October, the company will have to begin an overhaul that includes making the Play Store's entire library of more than 2 million Android apps available to would-be rivals and also help distribute the alternative options. Google has argued that the required revisions will raise privacy and security risks by exposing consumers to scam artists and hackers masquerading as legitimate app stores.
But Epic's lawyers have ridiculed Google's warnings about the changes as scare tactics in a desperate attempt to protect the fortunes of its corporate parent Alphabet Inc.
Although Epic fell short in its attempt to have the iPhone's app store declared a monopoly, that case resulted in a judge issuing an order that required Apple to surrender exclusive control over the payment processing of in-app transactions and allow links to alternative systems without collecting a commission.
ADVERTISEMENT
Besides being hit with Donato's order, Google still faces further trouble ahead that could leave an even bigger dent in its finances.
As part of the effort to address Google's illegal monopoly in search, a federal judge is weighing a proposal by the US Justice Department that would require the sale of its Chrome web browser and ban the multibillion dollar deals that company has been making with Apple and others to lock-in its search engine as the main gateway to the internet.
Google is also facing a proposed breakup of its advertising technology as part of the countermeasures to its monopoly in that business. A trial on that proposal was scheduled to begin in September.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Techday NZ
2 hours ago
- Techday NZ
AdsAdvisor launches advanced planning tool for mobile studios
AdsAdvisor has introduced a new scenario-based business modelling tool to streamline financial planning for mobile studios and offer improved revenue forecasting and cost management. The Business Modeling tool aims to assist mobile businesses in converting strategic targets, such as revenue and EBITA, into detailed, actionable plans using data-driven methods. It enables teams to create and test different user acquisition scenarios across multiple mobile platforms, including iOS, Android, Samsung, and Huawei, and visualise how varied strategies can influence financial results for any given period, whether a month, quarter, or year. Designed for mobile studios Eugene Chernysh, Chief Operating Officer at AdsAdvisor, said the purpose behind the development was to give mobile marketers clarity and a practical link between strategy and outcomes. Chernysh explained, "With mobile app businesses increasingly driven by data, we built Business Modeling to give mobile marketers a clear, practical way to connect strategy with outcomes. Releasing in H2 2025, it's the right tool at the right time - helping teams prepare for year-end performance cycles and plan confidently for the year ahead. Whether you're focused on growth, margin, or long-term efficiency, Business Modeling turns financial planning into a true growth tool - and keeps every team aligned around shared business goals." By supporting both cohort-based and streaming revenue models, the tool takes into account the entire cost structure typical for a mobile studio. This includes store commissions, VAT, user acquisition spend, creative production, royalties, and operational expenses. The platform integrates all these factors into a single model, aiming to move studios away from spreadsheets towards a consolidated, real-time view of performance and profitability. Operational integration After establishing a strategy, the tool is intended to act as a central operational hub, allowing studios to define key performance indicators, set return on investment targets, and monitor actual performance against forecasts on a real-time basis. At the end of each month, Business Modeling automatically imports updated live performance data and uses factor analysis to refresh future projections. This process is designed to help teams determine what changed and why targets were missed or achieved, and to identify the necessary adjustments to future plans. The platform includes features such as version comparisons, support for top-up web payments, seasonal multipliers, and the ability to upload historical data. These functionalities are aimed at elevating the precision of financial forecasts and providing more relevant scenario planning options. The tool is positioned to support a range of operational scenarios, from testing new game launches to optimising existing monetisation approaches, with rapid iteration informed by real-world data. Part of a broader suite Business Modeling forms a new component of the larger AdsAdvisor platform, which is designed to assist mobile businesses in scaling operations via data-focused insights, creative management systems, and user acquisition tools. Originally created by for its in-house titles, AdsAdvisor is now available more broadly to multiple industries worldwide, offering options for marketing analytics, creative asset management, and campaign automation. Additional information from the press release describes AdsAdvisor as a marketing platform intended to help mobile businesses optimise campaigns and drive growth through tools such as Marketing Analytics, Asset Lab, and UA Automation, all with a focus on streamlining workflows and campaign performance.
NZ Herald
3 hours ago
- NZ Herald
US ties with India trampled as Trump hunts goal of ending Russia's war in Ukraine
This week, Trump seemed ready to ditch that relationship. He doubled already hefty tariffs on Indian exports to the US for its steadfast refusal to stop buying oil from Russia, in an effort to pressure Russia to end the war. Trump has accused India of helping Russia finance its war on Ukraine through oil purchases; India has said it needs cheap oil to meet the energy needs of its fast-growing economy. India called the additional tariffs 'unfair, unjustified, and unreasonable', pointing out that it was being punished for doing something — buying Russian oil at a discounted price — that other nations have done, although it didn't mention names. China is the largest buyer of Russian oil, and Turkey has also deepened its energy links with Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine, without incurring similar penalties. Analysts said Trump's pressure tactics could damage the long-standing ties between India and the US. 'We are better off together than apart,' said Atul Keshap, a retired US diplomat and president of the US-India Business Council. 'The partnership forged by our elected leaders over the past 25 years is worth preserving and has achieved considerable mutual prosperity and advanced our shared strategic interests.' It's difficult to quantify what exactly America would lose if its relationship with India cools. India is a valuable strategic partner for the US, acting as a counterweight to China. It is also important to many American companies, including Apple, which has shifted some manufacturing of its products to India from China. Ajay Srivastava, a former trade official at the Global Trade Research Initiative, a New Delhi-based think-tank, said the US action 'will push India to reconsider its strategic alignment, deepening ties with Russia, China, and many other countries'. India and the US, with Japan and Australia, are part of a diplomatic partnership called the Quad, set up largely to counter China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region. India is planning to host the Quad Leaders' Summit later this year. Trump was expected to attend, although it's now unclear if he will. For India, the costs of a damaged relationship may prove to be higher. Trump's move puts Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a bind. Russia is the source of 45% of its oil imports. If India stops buying Russian oil, accepting higher prices for consumers and domestic manufacturing, it would be politically damaging for Modi's Government. If it ignores Trump's threat and continues buying Russian oil, the hit to India's economy will be far costlier. The higher tariffs could cut India's more than US$86 billion in exports to the US by half, according to the Global Trade Research Initiative, an Indian research group. The US is India's biggest trading partner, and exports account for nearly 20% of India's economy. India ranks only 10th among American trade partners in goods. India has also come to value American backing for its bid to be recognised as a global superpower. Modi has touted his relationship with Trump, courting the US President during his first term in office and calling him a 'true friend'. But that friendship, as many American allies have learned, may mean little when Trump's own priorities are at stake. US President Donald Trump is open to meeting Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the White House said yesterday. Photo / Olga Maltseva, Brendan Smialowski, Frederick Florin / AFP In recent weeks, Trump announced that he had struck deals with Japan, South Korea and the European Union, but even after months of negotiation, India had not reached an agreement. India was reluctant to make concessions on politically sensitive sectors like dairy and agriculture. India also publicly denied Trump's repeated claims that he helped broker a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after a brief, four-day conflict between the two neighbours in May. India has maintained that the ceasefire was negotiated bilaterally with Pakistan, and Indian leaders bristled at Trump's willingness to insert himself into that bitter rivalry. It is not yet clear whether the punitive tariffs Trump has threatened will ever take effect. In the executive order he issued, Trump said the tariffs would be implemented within a month, but he could modify the order if circumstances changed. The order included a provision that the US would look at other countries' purchases of Russian oil as well. So far, there is no indication that Trump intends to take a similar approach to China. Chinese and US officials are in the middle of sensitive negotiations about potential trade agreements after an initial round of retaliatory tariffs threatened to destabilise the global economy. With his tariff moves against India, Trump is keeping his eye on big strategic goals — a deal with China and keeping the pressure on Moscow before a potential meeting with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, which he disclosed yesterday. Far from being 'a dead economy', as Trump called it, India is the fastest-growing large economy in the world. But its place on the President's list of priorities may be much less certain. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Anupreeta Das Photograph by: Saumya Khandelwal ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
Big investment payouts even experts let get away
Photo: AFP / Spencer Platt / Getty Images If you've ever wished you put a few dollars into Bitcoin when it was changing hands for pocket change or snapped up Apple shares when they were selling for cents, you're not alone. Even investment experts have ones that got away. Here are some of the investments we regret missing out on. Hamilton Hindin Greene investment advisor Jeremy Sullivan said someone who had invested $10,000 in Amazon's IPO in 2007 would have just under $30 million now. They would have had to stick with it through some volatility along the way though, including through the 'Dot Com' crash, when its share price fell by more than 90 percent. Devon Funds Management retail head Greg Smith agreed Amazon could be a missed opportunity - it traded for US7c in May 1997, but shares are now more than US$220. Bitcoin has been the outperformer of the investment world recently. Chartered accountant and chief executive of Swyftx digital investment platform Jason Titman said, if someone had invested $36,500 in Bitcoin over the past decade - equivalent to $10 a day - they would now hold a portfolio worth about $2.8 million. Smith said he was in London in 2013, when Bitcoin was $1000. "A crypto fanatic told me to buy it, I hadn't even heard of it and didn't." Smith said he also regretted not buying A2 Milk shares, when they were 2c in 2004. The share price hit more than $20 in 2020 and is about $8.60 now. Smith said he also regretted missing out on Apple in the 1980s, when it regularly changed hands for less than US30c and is now more than US$210. Smith said Nvidia was up 66000 percent since its IPO in 1999 and up 1500 percent since 2020. In July, it became the world's first US$4 trillion company. The surge was driven by demand for its chips, which are used in AI. "There have been lofty expectations, but they've been delivering on that," Smith said in June. "They've ridden the generative AI boom and it's getting real demand." Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said not buying into Facebook in the early days was one of his regrets. You could buy shares for about US$20 in 2012 and they are worth more than US$770 now. "In hindsight, there's heaps I wish I bought," Olsen said. "Probably buying a property when I was a baby, that would have been my best investment, but there's also enough that I remember thinking about that had as much attention at the time about 'you should buy now' that I'm glad I never bought either - remember NFTs? "There's a range of products or options that were complete losers, and there were others that performed really well. That's the risk you'd have taken and why I don't really have any massive regrets. "I was happy with my risk tolerance at the time and still am." Kernel founder Dean Anderson said, rather than an investment he wished he had bought, there was one he should not have sold. "In my last year of university, 15 years ago, I bought a 1967 series 2 Land Rover. It was an absolute original, all the spare roofs, paperwork and just two owners - the army and then a retiree, who used it for his annual duck hunt. "I paid $1800 for the whole lot. While there was definitely a sense of 'what the hell did you buy that for' from dad, soon enough, he was out and about driving it. "It was an absolutely amazing vehicle, and responsible for many summer road trips and wine tours. Sold it a couple of years later, when it was hard to find somewhere to store it. "I made three times my investment on it, plus plenty of memories, but it would be 30 times that today - and who knows how many more memories." Property investment coach Steve Goodey said owning a big plot of land "just about anywhere" in Auckland 10 years ago would have made someone wealthy. New Zealand's median house price has increased from about $170,000 in 2000 to just under $800,000. As rules have changed, parcels of land that could be subdivided or house more properties have experienced significant increases in value. Between August last year and July this year, RocketLab shares increased from about US$5 to US$51. CoreLogic research head Nick Goodall said that benefited some members of his family - but not others. "We have a small Hatch account for our children, a way of teaching them about money," he said. "We said to the kids, 'What would you like to invest in?' "'You watch Disney, do you want to buy some shares in Disney? You're into sport, do you want to buy Nike?' "'You like rockets, do you want to buy RocketLab?' "This is very small scale, but we ended up buying some shares for our middle child, and there's been a 60 percent increase in three months or whatever. His sister's, like, 'I want some of that'. "In hindsight, it's anything that's seen strong growth in value over time. I like the idea of what has done well, but also sits morally with you." Koura founder Rupert Carlyon said he wished he had gone into the S&P500 ETF 20 years ago "and kept on doubling it". "A safe, low-risk investment that has done extremely well. "I simply wish I had known how easy investing could be much earlier." Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub said he had some investments he regretted getting into, such as Ubco, which collapsed in January, but was recently saved . "I have many such stories, but that's my fun money - mainly for start-ups, some of which become big payoffs. "The savings I have are in diversified portfolios, because stock picking and timing the market aren't things I can do consistently. I think focussing on one or two that got away, which can of course make someone immensely rich, distracts from the wider story of what works, regular habitual savings and the power of compounding." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
