Judge gives Google one week to fix “anticompetitive” app store download in Google Play

法官限谷歌一周内修复 Google Play 中“反竞争”的应用商店下载流程

Google began offering third-party app store downloads in the Play Store earlier this week, but US District Judge James Donato says the company isn’t doing enough. After reviewing the process for accessing the first non-Google store, Donato ruled that Google has added unnecessary “anticompetitive friction,” ordering the company to rectify the issues.

本周早些时候，谷歌开始允许在 Play Store 中下载第三方应用商店，但美国地方法官詹姆斯·多纳托（James Donato）表示，谷歌做得还不够。在审查了访问首个非谷歌应用商店的流程后，多纳托裁定谷歌增加了不必要的“反竞争阻碍”，并责令该公司纠正这些问题。

While Epic and Google are patching things up with a global partnership agreement, the two are still on opposite sides of the antitrust case in the US. Google lost the case in 2023, and the intervening years have been about determining how to implement remedies to address Google’s anticompetitive behavior. One of the court’s key elements is the requirement that Google include third-party app stores in the Play Store, giving users an easy way to get apps from non-Google sources. Aptoide Games became the first such app store recently.

尽管 Epic 和谷歌正通过一项全球合作伙伴协议修复关系，但双方在美国的反垄断案件中仍处于对立面。谷歌在 2023 年输掉了该案，随后的几年里，双方一直在商讨如何实施补救措施以解决谷歌的反竞争行为。法院要求的关键点之一是，谷歌必须在 Play Store 中引入第三方应用商店，为用户提供从非谷歌渠道获取应用的便捷途径。Aptoide Games 最近成为了首个入驻的应用商店。

However, Google worked hard to avoid this outcome, attempting to settle with Epic to keep third-party app stores out. When it was forced to admit the Aptoide store under the terms of the ruling, Google didn’t exactly put up a banner welcoming third-party app stores. In fact, Judge Donato found in a Thursday hearing that Google’s implementation was not good enough, according to The Verge. While there is a link to the Play Store’s alternative app store page, it’s buried several levels deep in its confusing menus.

然而，谷歌曾极力避免这一结果，试图通过与 Epic 和解来将第三方应用商店拒之门外。当谷歌根据裁决条款被迫接纳 Aptoide 商店时，它并没有表现出欢迎第三方应用商店的态度。据《The Verge》报道，多纳托法官在周四的听证会上指出，谷歌的执行情况并不理想。虽然 Play Store 中确实存在指向替代应用商店页面的链接，但它被深埋在令人困惑的菜单层级中。

Epic lawyer Yonatan Even showed the court that even searching for “app store” and “aptoide” didn’t show the intended results like any other search. Instead, the Play Store shows an “are you looking for” banner that links to the third-party app store page. Google doesn’t expose the app store landing page very well right now.

Epic 的律师约纳坦·埃文（Yonatan Even）向法庭展示，即使搜索“app store”或“aptoide”，也无法像常规搜索那样显示预期的结果。相反，Play Store 仅显示一个“您是否在寻找”的横幅，点击后才能跳转到第三方应用商店页面。目前，谷歌并未很好地展示这些应用商店的落地页。

Google’s lawyers contended in the hearing that Epic had already agreed that app stores are in a special category due to their expanded permissions, so the extra step was appropriate. The court didn’t buy that explanation, though. “That is not acceptable,” said Donato. “That has to be fixed. I want every possible variation that’s even only 70 percent properly phrased.”

谷歌的律师在听证会上辩称，Epic 此前已同意应用商店因拥有扩展权限而属于特殊类别，因此增加额外步骤是合理的。然而，法院并不买账。多纳托表示：“这是不可接受的。必须进行修复。我要求所有可能的变体，哪怕只有 70% 的表述是恰当的（也必须改进）。”

Another problem is the process of actually installing the store. When you finally get to the page with Aptoide (and eventually other stores), there is no install button, as you’d get with an app or game in the store. A “view” button opens another dialog to actually install. Again, Donato said this additional step was unnecessary and seemed geared toward discouraging users from downloading alternative stores. He said the button must change to “install” instead of “view.”

另一个问题是实际安装商店的流程。当你最终到达 Aptoide（以及未来其他商店）的页面时，并没有像商店中其他应用或游戏那样的“安装”按钮。取而代之的是一个“查看”按钮，点击后会弹出另一个对话框才能进行安装。多纳托再次指出，这个额外的步骤是不必要的，似乎旨在阻碍用户下载替代商店。他要求将按钮改为“安装”而非“查看”。

Google’s legal team agreed to make these changes, and Donato gave the company one week, noting they should contact him if there is any problem with that timeline. So we can expect a smoother install experience for alternative app stores very soon. It’s possible that once this process is complete, Epic will finally take advantage of the ruling it worked toward for years and release its own storefront in Google Play. For now, Aptoide stands alone.

谷歌法律团队同意进行这些更改，多纳托给了该公司一周的时间，并表示如果时间表有任何问题，应及时与他联系。因此，我们很快就能期待替代应用商店拥有更流畅的安装体验。一旦这一流程完善，Epic 很可能会利用其多年争取来的裁决，在 Google Play 中发布自己的商店。目前，Aptoide 仍是唯一入驻的商店。