Google's Play Store shake-up looms after Supreme Court refuses to delay
overhaul of the monopoly
[October 07, 2025] By
MICHAEL LIEDTKE
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to protect Google from a
year-old order requiring a major makeover of its Android app store
that's designed to unleash more competition against a system that a jury
declared an illegal monopoly.
The rebuff delivered in a one-sentence decision by the Supreme Court
means Google will soon have to start an overhaul of its Play Store for
the apps running on the Android software that powers most smartphones
that compete against Apple's iPhone in the U.S.
Among other changes, U.S. District Judge James Donato last October
ordered Google to give its competitors access to its entire inventory of
Android apps and also make those alternative options available to
download from the Play Store.
In a filing last month, Google told the U.S. Supreme Court that Donato's
order would expose the Play Store's more than 100 million U.S. users to
“enormous security and safety risks by enabling stores that stock
malicious, deceptive, or pirated content to proliferate."
Google also said it faced an Oct. 22 deadline to begin complying with
the judge's order if the Supreme Court didn't grant its request for a
stay. The Mountain View, California, company was seeking the protection
while pursuing a last-ditch attempt to overturn the December 2023 jury
verdict that condemned the Play Store as an abusive monopoly.
In a statement, Google said it will continue its fight in the Supreme
Court while submitting to what it believes is a problematic order. “The
changes ordered by the U.S. District Court will jeopardize users’
ability to safely download apps,” Google warned.
Google had been insulated from the order while trying to overturn it and
the monopoly verdict, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected
that attempt in a decision issued two months ago.
In its filing with the Supreme Court, Google argued it was being
unfairly turned into a supplier and distributor for would-be rivals.
Donato concluded the digital walls shielding the Play Store from
competition needed to be torn down to counteract a pattern of abusive
behavior. The conduct had enabled Google to to reap billions of dollars
in annual profits, primarily from its exclusive control of a payment
processing system that collected a 15-30% fee on in-app transactions.
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A Google sign is displayed at the company's office in San Francisco,
April 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
 Those commissions were the focal
point of an antitrust lawsuit that video game maker Epic Games filed
against Google in 2020, setting up a month-long trial in San
Francisco federal court that culminated in the jury's monopoly
verdict.
Epic, the maker of the Fortnite game, lost a similar antitrust case
targeting Apple's iPhone app store. Even though U.S. District Judge
Yvonne Gonzalez-Rodgers concluded the iPhone app store wasn't an
illegal monopoly, she ordered Apple to begin allowing links to
alternative payment systems as part of a shake-up that resulted in
the company being held in civil contempt of court earlier this year.
In a post, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney applauded the Supreme Court for
clearing the way for consumers to choose alternative app payment
choices “without fees, scare screens, and friction.”
Although the Play Store changes will likely dent Google's profit,
the company makes most of its money from a digital ad network that's
anchored by its dominant search engine — the pillars of an internet
empire that has been under attack on other legal fronts.
As part of cases brought by the U.S. Justice Department, both
Google's search engine and parts of its advertising technology were
declared illegal monopolies, too.
A federal judge in the search engine case earlier this year rejected
a proposed break-up outlined by the Justice Department i n a
decision that was widely seen as a reprieve for Google. The
government is now seeking to break up Google in the advertising
technology case during proceedings that are scheduled to wrap up
with closing arguments on Nov. 17 in Alexandria, Virginia.
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