The courtroom showdown that could reshape Android's future is happening now. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney and Google Android boss Sameer Samat are sitting before Judge James Donato, trying to convince him their surprise settlement can resolve Google's illegal monopoly on Android app stores. After five years of bitter litigation, a unanimous jury verdict, and failed appeals all the way to the Supreme Court, the former enemies are now asking the judge to bless a deal that would reduce app store fees globally - but critics worry it might let Google off too easy.
Google and Epic Games just walked into a federal courtroom with a peace treaty no one saw coming. After half a decade of legal warfare that ended with a jury declaring Google's Android app store an illegal monopoly, the two tech giants are now asking Judge James Donato to approve a settlement that could reshape how millions of developers do business - or let Google maintain its grip with a fresh coat of paint.
The scene inside the San Francisco courthouse tells the whole story. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, the man who triggered this battle by yanking Fortnite from the Google Play Store in August 2020, is sitting alongside Sameer Samat, the Google executive who oversees the very Android ecosystem Epic spent years attacking. They're not here to fight. They're here to sell Judge Donato on the idea that their negotiated truce serves justice better than the court-ordered remedies he handed down.
Those remedies were harsh. After a jury unanimously sided with Epic in December 2023, finding Google maintained an illegal monopoly through anticompetitive practices, Judge Donato ordered Google to crack open Android in the United States. The injunction forced Google to host rival app stores inside its own Google Play Store and stripped away numerous barriers that kept competitors at bay. , and when Google begged the Supreme Court to intervene, .
