Google is being reprimanded over the way it’s handling the arrival of third-party app stores in the Google Play Store, which the court is calling anticompetitive friction and that the practice is unacceptable. Earlier this year, Google was ordered to start allowing third-party app stores in the Google Play Store as a ruling by Judge James Donato in Google’s case against Epic Games.
This led to the arrival of the first third-party option in early August with Apptoide Games, an alternative app store for games that appeared back on August 10. What Judge Donato reportedly takes issue with is Google’s decision to add warnings of a sort to the app store listings. Judge Donato says Google is essentially putting too many barriers between the user and these alternative app store options.
Judge Donato says Google has to remove its anticompetitive third-party app store warnings
If you haven’t seen the warnings that Judge Donato is talking about, you can find them by searching for third-party app stores inside the Play Store. Upon searching for this term, you get a result at the top of the page that states “Looking for app stores? If you are looking for app stores, you need to the third-party app store page.” There is then a button that says Go To Page that you need to tap.
On this page, there is a giant label at the top that says third-party app stores. And below that there is a lengthy description of this, with details like “third-party app stores operate under their own security and privacy practices. Google Play enforces its policies on these stores for your protection, but we do not review every app in these stores.” Additionally, Google places a “view” button next to the app store listing, which you need to tap before getting an option to install it. With any other app you search for, install buttons appear next to the app results instead of a view button, making for a more seamless interaction.
According to Donato, these warnings must be removed and the more seamless install path must be implemented soon. Donato has given Google one week to make these changes.
The post Google ordered to remove fear mongering app store warnings appeared first on Android Headlines.
