Ellsworth told the appeals court that U.S. District Judge James Donato improperly allowed Epic to turn the Google trial into a “do-over” that excluded the Apple app store as a rival in the market definition that led to the jury's verdict in its case.

By Mike Scarcella (Reuters) -Lawyers for Alphabet's Google and "Fortnite" maker Epic Games squared off before a U.S. appeals court in California on Monday, as Google tries to undo a jury verdict and a judge's order forcing it to revamp its app store.

Epic accused Google in a 2020 lawsuit of monopolizing how consumers access apps on Android devices and how they pay for transactions within apps.

Google blocked an unprecedented 2.36 million app submissions to the Play Store in 2024. These apps were found to violate Google’s security policies, potentially posing risks to Android users worldwide. Google also banned 158,000 developer accounts linked to the distribution of harmful software, including malware and spyware.

Sometimes we forget just how many people out there are looking to steal something from us. Sometimes they steal stuff we don't even realise is valuable

Epic Games, on the other hand, is steadfast. It has urged the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the original verdict, accusing Google of running a "years-long strategy to suppress competition among app stores and payment solutions."

Google is preparing to head back to court on Monday to appeal a ruling that found its app store was a monopoly — one of three major antitrust suits against the tech firm.