Amicus Brief to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Support of the Appellant in ...

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) presents a compelling amicus brief analyzing the Epic v. Google antitrust case and its implications for mobile platform competition.

ITIF argues that the Ninth Circuit's decision in Epic v. Google troublingly contradicts its prior ruling in Epic v. Apple, where Google and Apple were recognized as competitors in mobile gaming markets. The organization contends that both tech giants vigorously compete through different platform approaches—Google's open distribution model versus Apple's walled garden strategy—and that dynamic technological innovation should prevent findings of monopoly power in rapidly evolving mobile markets.

• The court inconsistently applied narrower market definitions in the Google case, excluding Apple as a competitor despite previous recognition of their competitive relationship
• The unprecedented catalog access remedy requiring Google to share its app catalog with rivals exceeds proper antitrust relief and lacks clear causal connection to the violations found
• Forced catalog sharing threatens to destabilize the Android ecosystem, enable bad actors, discourage innovation, and harm millions of consumers and developers
• Rehearing is essential to ensure consistency in mobile platform antitrust cases and prevent harmful precedents that could chill technological innovation