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Jury last year ruled against Google in antitrust suit

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Judge's order had embraced recommendations by Epic Games

(Adds details on judge's order in paragraph 3, comment from

Epic in paragraph 5)

By Mike Scarcella

Oct 18 (Reuters) -

A federal judge in California has granted Google's request

to temporarily pause his order directing the Alphabet

unit to overhaul its Android app store Play by Nov. 1 to give

consumers more choice over how they download software.

San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge James Donato made

the decision on Friday as part of an antitrust lawsuit against

Google brought by "Fortnite" maker Epic Games. Google argued

that Donato's Oct. 7 injunction would harm the company and

introduce "serious safety, security and privacy risks into the

Android ecosystem."

Donato delayed the injunction to allow the San

Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to consider

Google's separate request to pause the judge's order.

Donato denied Google's separate request to pause the

order for the duration of its broader appeal in the case.

"We're pleased with the District Court's decision to

temporarily pause the implementation of dangerous remedies

demanded by Epic, as the Court of Appeal considers our request

to further pause the remedies while we appeal," Google said in a

statement.

Epic declined to comment on Donato's order.

In the Epic Games lawsuit, a jury last year found that

Google illegally monopolized how consumers download apps on

Android devices and how they pay for in-app transactions. The

judge, in his order, embraced many of the steps recommended by

Epic in light of the jury's decision.

The order required Google to allow users to download

competing third-party Android app platforms or stores in Play

and to allow the use of competing in-app payment methods. It

also barred Google from making payments to device makers to

preinstall its app store and from sharing revenue generated from

the Play store with other app distributors.

Google has already appealed the jury's antitrust

findings to the 9th Circuit.

Google has not yet presented its antitrust arguments to the

appeals court. It previously has said that it cannot be

considered a monopolist because Play and Apple's App

Store are direct competitors, and that Donato's injunction would

unlawfully force Google to do business with rivals.