The US judge grants Google's request to temporarily suspend the overhaul of the Play Store

By Mike Scarcella

(Reuters) – Google said on Friday that a federal judge in California had granted its request to stay its order ordering the Alphabet unit to overhaul its Android app store Play by Nov. 1 to help consumers to give more choice when downloading software.

San Francisco-based US District Judge James Donato made the decision on Friday as part of an antitrust lawsuit brought by “Fortnite” maker Epic Games against Google. Google argued that Donato's Oct. 7 injunction would harm the company and pose “serious security and privacy risks to the Android ecosystem.”

Donato delayed the injunction to allow the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to consider Google's separate request to stay the judge's order, Google said.

“We are pleased with the district court's decision to temporarily suspend implementation of the dangerous remedies requested by Epic as the appeals court considers our request for a further stay of the remedies while we appeal,” Google said in a statement.

Epic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the Epic Games lawsuit last year, a jury found that Google illegally monopolized the way consumers download apps on Android devices and how they pay for in-app transactions. In his order, the judge adopted many of the steps recommended by Epic in light of the jury's decision.

The order required Google to allow users to download competing Android app platforms or third-party stores in Play and to allow the use of competing in-app payment methods. It also banned Google from making payments to device makers for pre-installing its App Store and from sharing Play Store revenue with other app distribution partners.

Google has already appealed the jury's antitrust findings to the 9th Circuit.

Google has not yet presented its antitrust arguments to the appeals court. It previously said the company could not be considered a monopolist because Play and Apple's App Store were direct competitors, and Donato's injunction would unlawfully force Google to do business with rivals.

(Reporting by Mike Scarcella in Washington; Editing by David Bario, Will Dunham and Chizu Nomiyama)