The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an emergency request from Google to prevent it from being forced to make a series of changes to its Play app store, effectively opening it up to competition.
The court’s order did not provide reasoning or a vote count, as is typical in such emergency rulings.
The decision clears the way for a lower court’s order to go into effect as planned on Oct. 22. In a long-running dispute between Google and the creator of the Fortnite video game, the trial judge ordered Google to stop requiring developers to use its app store to bill for payments, allowing them to provide other ways to pay and to set their own prices, among other changes.
The court’s emergency action dealt with the impending deadline but did not resolve the underlying dispute, which could return to the justices for further consideration. In its emergency application last month, Google said it planned to seek full review by the Supreme Court by Oct. 27. If the justices agreed to hear the case, it could be argued before the court this term.
The fight began in 2018, when Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, released the popular game as a smartphone app. The company first distributed the game through direct downloads and the Samsung Galaxy Store, but eventually offered it on Google Play.
But the game maker embedded secret code in the app’s software that allowed players to circumvent Google’s required payment-processing systems, which charged a 30 percent commission. Epic Games created a plan to counter the app store requirements, code-naming it Project Liberty.
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