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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

By Mike Scarcella

Oct 18 (Reuters) - Google said on Friday that a federal

judge in California granted its request to 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, Google

said.

"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 did not immediately respond to a request for

comment.

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.