flop_leash_973Epic win: Jury decides Google has illegal monopoly in app store fight
Didn’t Epic lose the fight against Apple? How is Google more of a monopoly than Apple? It is incredibly easy to sideload apps on Android compared to iPhones, and there are even dedicated unofficial stores. These verdicts are not coherent at all between them.
bleuthootFrom some other comment I read, it apparently was due to google paying companies to set Google’a stuff as their default. Something Apple does not (have to) do.
cosmic_slateThank you for pulling forward a comment to explain this better. I thought the two cases were different but didn’t remember how.
I guess it makes sense that google lost here, but what doesn’t seem to make sense at all, at least for me, is how on earth apple won when on their platform you literally have no other option than to use apples stuff.
If I had to guess, probably for the same reason you can’t sue for not being able to pick what apps you install on your toaster.
Google probably opened themselves up to this monopoly shit by trying not to be as much of a monopoly as Apple is trying to be.
I’ve heard a lot of lawyers say that the law punishes virtually every good behavior because that behavior can be construed in a way that you can be sued for, and that it favors being a dick more than anything. In this case, that might be what happened?
I mean, not that Google is a saint at all.
Tertle950That is seventeen flavors of idiotic in one sickly smartphone sundae
Law is hell on earth, and lawyers are devils.
inverted_deflectorYeah it still doesnt feel consistent to me. Apple is a large enough marketshare holder for a handheld computer and doesnt even give you an option to sideload another market place. The explanation doesnt make any more sense because google is more open.
Exactly
Cosmic ClericSomeone else commented that the Google trial was jury decided, where the Apple trial was (assumingly) not.
True, but that’s more about the relationship between Google and phone manufacturers and and carriers. As far as a party like Epic is concerned, it shouldn’t have any relation. As far as epic goes, they’re only affected by the opt in process to install apks, and apps not being allowed to install apps (which I hope has a way more complicated opt in process or malware will be rampant among casual users)
the law should be the same for all, not at the interpretation of whichever judge you get.
Welcome to the US of A. Happens literally all the time. Hence the big fight over control of the Supreme Court.
Probably comes down to the unwillingness of US legislators to create clear laws. Too many compromises to satisfy lobbyists and avoid any negative campaign they might sponsor. Judges likely do the best they can trying to interpret the mess of case law they depend on in the absence of modern legislation. I have no idea why the US supreme court gets to decide on matters like abortion based on hand wavy interpretations of historical documents when in any normal democracy the politicians do the will of the people and enact legislation that reflects modern society.
ThenThreeMoreI understand they are two separate judges, but the law should be the same for all, not at the interpretation of whichever judge you get.
That’s literally a big chunk of law. So there must be something other than it just being the judge’s interpretation.
This was a jury trial.
joel_feilaKey difference, this one had a jury make the final call