JUDGE TELLS GOOGLE TO BRACE FOR SHAKEUP OF ANDROID APP STORE AS PUNISHMENT FOR RUNNING A MONOPOLY

A federal judge on Wednesday indicated he will order major changes in Google’s Android app store to punish the company for engineering a system that a jury declared an illegal monopoly that has hurt millions of consumers and app developers.

Over the course of a three-hour hearing in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge James Donato made it clear that the forthcoming shake-up he is contemplating will probably include a mandate requiring Google’s Play Store for Android phones offer consumers a choice to download alternative app stores.

Donato has been weighing how to punish the Google since last December when a jury declared the Play Store a monopoly following a four-week trial. The verdict centered on Google’s nearly exclusive control over distribution of apps designed for Android phones and the billing systems for the digital commerce occurring within them — a system that generates billions of dollars in annual revenue for the company.

In protesting the judge’s potential requirements, Google has raised the specter of consumers’ devices being infected by malicious software downloaded from third-party app stores, triggering “security chaos.”

But Donato repeatedly hammered on the need for a major overhaul of the Play Store, even if it causes Google headaches and huge bills that the company has estimated could run as high as $600 million, depending on what the judge orders.