Microsoft backs court injunction against Google

Dive Brief:

• Tech titan Microsoft wants a federal court to preserve an injunction that required rival Google to end its illegal monopoly in the Android apps market, including over payments, as part of protracted litigation involving Fortnite maker Epic Games.
• Microsoft’s friend-of-the-court brief, filed Jan. 16, came ahead of a Thursday hearing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, at which Google and Epic executives teamed up to request that U.S. District Judge James Donato modify his October 2024 permanent injunction designed to remedy Google’s antitrust violations. The decree – to settle Epic’s 2020 lawsuit against Google – requires Google to give app makers access to its Android ecosystem and allow the use of external payment tools.
• “The Court should be alert to the possibility that the modification is designed to enhance Google’s ability to earn supracompetitive profits while delivering other benefits to…