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Google asked Supreme Court to freeze parts of judge's

order

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Order was issued in suit by "Fortnite" maker Epic Games

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Google says it will continue its appeal

(Adds Google and Epic Games comments in paragraphs 6-7)

By Mike Scarcella

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court

declined on Monday to halt key parts of a judge's order

requiring Alphabet's Google to make major changes to

its app store Play, as the company prepares to appeal a decision

in a lawsuit brought by "Fortnite" maker Epic Games.

The justices turned down Google's request to temporarily

freeze parts of the injunction won by Epic in its lawsuit

accusing the tech giant of monopolizing how consumers access

apps on Android devices and pay for transactions within apps.

A federal appeals court in July upheld the judge's sweeping

order against Google.

The injunction issued last year by U.S. District Judge James

Donato requires Google to allow users to download rival app

stores within its Play store and make Play's app catalog

available to competitors. Those provisions do not take effect

until July 2026.

The judge also said Google must allow developers to include

external links in apps, enabling users to bypass Google's

billing system. That part of the injunction is due to take

effect later this month.

Google said in a statement that while it was disappointed by

the Supreme Court's order, the company will continue its appeal.

Epic Games chief executive Tim Sweeney said in a post on

social media platform X that starting later this month, app

developers will be "legally entitled" to steer Google Play users

to out-of-app payment options without fees and other "friction."

Donato issued his order in a lawsuit that Epic filed in 2020

against Google, alleging its restrictive app store rules

violated antitrust law. Epic won a jury trial in San Francisco

in 2023. Google has denied any wrongdoing.

Google has called Donato's order unprecedented, and said it

would cause reputational harm, safety and security risks and put

the company at a competitive disadvantage if allowed to take

effect.

Google in its Supreme Court filing said the changes would

have enormous consequences for more than 100 million U.S.

Android users and 500,000 developers. Google said it plans to

file a full appeal to the Supreme Court by October 27, which

could allow the justices to take up the case during their

nine-month term that began on Monday.

Epic has said Google is relying on what it called "flawed

security claims" to justify its control over Android devices.

Epic had urged the justices to allow Donato's injunction to take

effect "so consumers and developers can benefit from

competition, choices and lower prices."

In July, a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th

U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction, ruling that

the record in Epic's lawsuit was "replete with evidence that

Google's anticompetitive conduct entrenched its dominance."

Google faces other lawsuits from government, consumer and

commercial plaintiffs challenging its search and advertising

business practices.

(Reporting by Mike Scarcella in Washington; Additional

reporting by Andrew Chung in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham

and Muralikumar Anantharaman)