Elon Musk is seemingly done attacking Apple over its decision to integrate ChatGPT into iPhone features.

Back in 2024, when the partnership was first announced, Musk slammed the integration as an agreement from Apple to let OpenAI install “creepy spyware” on users’ devices. The next year, he sued, claiming the partnership gave the firms a “monopoly” on Apple users’ AI prompts, which allegedly harmed competition in both smartphone and chatbot markets.

For Musk, the fight with Apple seemingly escalated after he believed that his chatbot, Grok, was perhaps being illegally blocked from topping Apple’s App Store rankings. Last August, he claimed that “Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation.”

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A US federal judge has sided with Google, ruling that the company will not have to sell its online advertising exchange (previously known as AdX). The US Department of Justice (DOJ) sought this remedy in the long-running ad tech antitrust trial, which Google lost in 2025. However, the remedies imposed upon Google for that loss are shaping up to be minimal.

In this case, the DOJ and a coalition of states sought to prove that Google leveraged its immense market power in online display ads to reduce the reach of competitors. Government lawyers argued that Google had "rigged" ad auctions to give itself an advantage. While the court agreed that Google illegally locked publishers into using its exchange, it did not agree that Google had broken the law when it came to the tools used by advertisers.

Despite the mixed ruling, the DOJ argued during the remedy phase that forcing Google to sell its ad exchange, which facilitates connections between ad buyers and sellers, was the best way to level the playing field. But that won't happen. While the ad exchange represents a relatively small part of Google's revenue, forcing the company to sell may have sent ripple effects through the rest of its ad business. It would also have been a powerful message to Big Tech firms, which have successfully knocked back a recent wave of antitrust cases.

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Google began offering third-party app store downloads in the Play Store earlier this week, but US District Judge James Donato says the company isn't doing enough. After reviewing the process for accessing the first non-Google store, Donato ruled that Google has added unnecessary "anticompetitive friction," ordering the company to rectify the issues.

While Epic and Google are patching things up with a global partnership agreement, the two are still on opposite sides of the antitrust case in the US. Google lost the case in 2023, and the intervening years have been about determining how to implement remedies to address Google's anticompetitive behavior. One of the court's key elements is the requirement that Google include third-party app stores in the Play Store, giving users an easy way to get apps from non-Google sources. Aptoide Games became the first such app store recently.

However, Google worked hard to avoid this outcome, attempting to settle with Epic to keep third-party app stores out. When it was forced to admit the Aptoide store under the terms of the ruling, Google didn't exactly put up a banner welcoming third-party app stores. In fact, Judge Donato found in a Thursday hearing that Google's implementation was not good enough, according to The Verge.

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A new day has dawned in the Play Store, and it's one that Google tried very hard to avoid. The first third-party app store has arrived in Google Play as a result of the long-running antitrust lawsuit with Epic. Those in the US can now head into Google Play and download Aptoide, a game-focused store that has been available as a sideloaded client since the early days of Android.

Forcing Google to distribute third-party app stores in Google Play was one of several remedies imposed by Judge James Donato after Epic emerged victorious in 2023. The remedies also included lowering developer fees, mirroring Google Play apps in other app stores, and allowing developers to use alternative payment systems. But it was the app store stipulation that seemed to irk Google the most.

Google almost avoided this outcome when it agreed to a settlement with Epic, which was announced early this year. Under the terms, Google would certify third-party app stores to allow users to install and use them with less friction, but it would not host them in Google Play. However, Google and Epic withdrew the settlement when it appeared the court would not approve it. This Registered App Store program is still slated to launch internationally, but in the US, Google is only doing what it must to comply with the judge's orders.

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Big changes are coming to Android apps, but they're not the changes Google wanted. The settlement between Google and Epic that aimed to put to rest the companies' long-running antitrust battle is being withdrawn, and that means third-party app stores are coming to the Play Store. Google has confirmed that it will begin distributing rival app stores next week, setting the stage for competing platforms to take a bite out of Google's Android revenue stream.

This case has the potential to upend software distribution on Android, and it's all because of V-Bucks. In 2020, Epic Games was frustrated that it had to pay a 30 percent cut to Apple and Google every time someone bought a bundle of V-Bucks in a mobile version of Fortnite. The publisher added a direct purchase option to the game in violation of both Apple's and Google's rules. Naturally, Fortnite was pulled from the App Store and Google Play, kicking off the antitrust lawsuit that is only now reaching its conclusion.

While Apple suffered little penalty in its Epic case, Google was tripped up by its anti-competitive management of the supposedly open Android ecosystem. Google used its market position to discourage device makers from promoting or pre-loading non-Google app stores and attempted to hide that conduct. The remedies set by Judge James Donato included lower fees, mirroring Google Play apps in other stores, and most vitally, placement of alternative app stores in Google Play.

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Apple is hoping the Supreme Court will reverse a contempt finding that threatens to block the tech giant from charging high commission fees when developers divert iPhone users to non-Apple payment methods for app purchases.

The contempt finding came in a case where Epic Games accused Apple of violating a judicial order requiring changes to its App Store, which charged a 30 percent commission for using Apple payment methods and did not allow developer links to alternative payment methods.

That order required Apple to allow developers to include links to make payments outside the Apple ecosystem, but Apple did so only after requiring a 27 percent commission for allowing the link-outs. In December, Apple lost an appeal after defending its commission as reasonable. At that time, the 9th Circuit concluded that Apple violated the spirit of the order by charging fees so high that they “had a prohibitive effect” on developers who saw little benefit in updating apps to save only a small amount on fees.

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