'That is not acceptable': Judge orders Google to make rival app store installs easier
Judge James Donato ordered Google to remove 'anticompetitive friction' from rival Android app store installs, giving the company one week to simplify search results and install flows.
Intelligence analysis by Llama
Judge Donato gave Google a one-week deadline to strip 'anticompetitive friction' from rival Android app store installs after Epic demonstrated the process in court. The judge found Play Store search, install buttons, and confirmation screens all stacked unnecessary obstacles against third-party stores.
Imagine a store that lets other shops put things on its shelves but hides them behind extra buttons and confusing signs so nobody can find them. The judge said that is not fair, so Google has one week to make those other shops easy to find and install, just like normal apps.
Analysis
James Donato's impatience
Judge James Donato's blunt exclamation — "Wait, why did Walmart come up?" — captured the courtroom's frustration more than any legal filing could. Nearly three years after a jury unanimously found Google guilty of maintaining an illegal monopoly over Android apps, and two years after Donato himself ordered the company to crack open its app distribution, Google still appeared to be dragging its feet.
The judge's tone suggests he views compliance not as a technical exercise but as a test of Google's good faith. His instruction to "have it done by a week from today" signals that he is done negotiating through remedies. Donato wants changes on screen, not promises in court filings, and his willingness to single out specific UI elements on the spot suggests he has spent time testing the Play Store himself.
Aptoide as proof of concept
The first rival Android app store to make it into the Google Play Store — Aptoide — served as the visible test case for whether Google's remedy was real or cosmetic. Epic's complaint was not just that Aptoide was hard to find; it was that even when users search for "app store" or type Aptoide's name directly, Google surfaces a custom banner that funnels users to a dedicated third-party app store page rather than a normal search results list.
That distinction matters beyond Aptoide. Epic's lawyer warned that big players like Amazon might not bother launching app stores at all if doing so costs them standard search visibility. Donato agreed, calling the extra confirmation step "friction there that has no purpose whatsoever" and ordering it stripped within seven days.
Yonatan Even's courtroom demo
Epic's lawyer Yonatan Even ran the judge through a live walkthrough of three concrete UI obstacles. First, searching "store for apps" in Google Play returns Walmart, not third-party app stores — a result the judge said had to be fixed for "every possible variation that's even only 70 percent properly phrased." Second, users must press a "view" button before they can press "install," unlike the one-tap install flow for Apple Music that Donato referenced.
Third, a confirmation screen asks "are you looking for" an app store, which the judge said served no purpose. "We all know that when you go to a Google store or an Apple store and you type in the name of your app, you're going to get one thing you were looking for and ten things you don't want," Donato explained. Google's counsel agreed to all three modifications on the spot, but the one-week deadline leaves no room for further delays — and the door open for another contempt hearing if Google drags its feet again.
Key points
- Judge James Donato ordered Google to simplify how users find and install rival Android app stores within one week.
- Epic demonstrated in court that searching 'store for apps' in Google Play returns Walmart instead of third-party app stores.
- Google must remove the extra 'view' button before 'install' and eliminate the 'are you looking for' confirmation screen.
- The judge warned that established companies like Amazon may not launch rival app stores if doing so costs them normal search visibility.
- Google's counsel agreed to all three modifications on the spot during the hearing.
If Google fully complies, Android users could soon see a more competitive app store ecosystem where installing alternatives like Aptoide is as frictionless as installing Apple Music — potentially lowering fees and expanding developer reach. The judge's aggressive one-week timeline also signals that further delays will be met with escalating court pressure rather than more negotiations.
Google could comply minimally and introduce new friction elsewhere, like burying settings deeper or adding fresh warning screens, forcing Epic back to court for each round. The ruling only addresses surface UI issues, not the underlying revenue model that made Google's app store monopoly so profitable, leaving the broader financial incentives intact.
