Cybersecurity Policy Report, Google Finds Support From Cybersecurity Advocates in Epic Games Case, (Aug 27, 2025)

By Jeff Williams

Google LLC has found support from cybersecurity advocates for its petition seeking rehearing of a decision in Google LLC et al. v. Epic Games, Inc. (case 24-6274) by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Appeals Court for the Ninth Circuit (San Francisco) that upheld a jury verdict and injunction against Google stemming from an antitrust lawsuit Epic filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (case 20-cv-05671) related to Google’s app store practices.

Following the jury’s verdict that Google’s app store and in-app billing practices violated federal and California antitrust law, the lower court judge in the case issued a three-year injunction from providing certain benefits to various parties that advantage the Google Play Store. The appeals court upheld the jury verdict and injunction in an opinion issued July 31.

Google has asked the appeals court to stay the injunction pending consideration of the company’s rehearing petition.

App developer association ACT said the Google decision would “make the app ecosystem worse.” In particular, ACT said, “the remedy introduces security risks into the app ecosystem; directs app developers into relationships with sketchy, knock-off Play stores, with which they want no business; and gives Epic an unearned and outsized role in the future of the app economy,” Brief for ACT in Support of the Petition for Rehearing En Banc and/or Panel Rehearing, Epic Games, Inc., v. Google LLC et al., No. 24-6526 (Aug, 25, 2025).

Several cybersecurity scholars and former officials said in a joint filing that the appeals court should grant a rehearing, arguing that allowing the injunction to continue “risks creating massive cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the online ecosystem,” Brief for Former National Security Officials and Scholars as Amici Curiae in Support of Defendants-Appellants, Epic Games, Inc., v. Google LLC et al., No. 24-6526 (Aug, 25, 2025).

The Center for Cybersecurity Policy and Law said its “central concern” was that some of the proposed structural and data-sharing remedies under consideration could increase risk to user privacy, national security, and the broader digital ecosystem, Brief for Center for Cybersecurity Policy as Amicus Curiae, Epic Games, Inc., v. Google LLC et al., No. 24-6526 (Aug. 25, 2025).

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