JUDGE WEIGHS PROPOSED CHANGES TO GOOGLE'S ANDROID APP STORE TO PREVENT ANTICOMPETITIVE TACTICS

Google is tried to confront the latest in a succession of legal attacks on its digital empire as federal judge began to address anticompetitive practices in the app market for smartphones powered by its Android software.

The San Francisco court hearing before U.S. District Judge James Donato comes five months after a nine-person jury decided Google had turned its Play Store for Android phone apps into an illegal monopoly following a four-week trial in an antitrust case brought by Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite.

At the start of the hearing, Donato told lawyers for both parties not to revisit the jury's verdict, which is now "carved in stone." He also said that the case is about "competing generally," and he is "not looking for a relief that gives a helping hand just to Epic."

The verdict has given Epic a chance to persuade Donato to impose sweeping restrictions and other changes on how Google manages the distribution of Android apps. Those apps enable a wide range of services on virtually every phone that isn't made by Apple.

At the hearing, Donato heard from experts on both sides arguing over Epic's sweeping proposed changes to Google's app store. Under Epic's key proposals, Google would be required to make all Android apps in the Play Store available to competing stores - and also distribute rival app stores directly to consumers who want to download them. Basically, it would have to put competing app stores in its own app store to boost rivals' chances of getting discovered by consumers

This, Epic argues, would help level the playing field for new and smaller competitors since Google's app is boosted by a network effect― it has the dominant app and the most users.

These remedies would eventually expire, although it is not clear when. Epic proposed six years, but it was unclear if Donato would allow that. Six years, he said, "strikes me as an awfully long time."