Amicus Brief in Support of Supreme Court Application for Stay of Injunction in Epic v. Google Antitrust Appeal
- Ashley Baker
- Oct 7
- 2 min read
The following is the statement of Committee for Justice Executive Director Ashley Baker:
"The Committee for Justice (CFJ) filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to stay a Ninth Circuit ruling against Google in the high-profile Epic v. Google case. The Supreme Court has now denied Google’s application for a stay allowing the lower court’s injunction forcing Google to open its Play Store to competitors, distribute its entire app catalog to rival stores, and even host competing app stores within its own platform to go into effect later this month.
CFJ argued that such forced “sharing” represents a radical departure from antitrust law, which is designed to protect competition—not individual competitors. Drawing on Supreme Court precedent (Verizon v. Trinko) and the Tenth Circuit’s decision in Novell v. Microsoft (authored by then-Judge Gorsuch), CFJ argued that businesses are not generally required to deal with their rivals, and that courts should not act as “central planners” of innovation markets. Central planning, as Hayek warned, suppresses entrepreneurial discovery and replaces market discipline with bureaucratic judgement.
The brief stressed that, absent a stay, Google will suffer irreparable harm to its reputation, security, and competitiveness, while the injunction would undermine incentives for future innovation. Antitrust law, CFJ noted, should reward companies like Google for building successful platforms through ingenuity and investment—not punish them by compelling them to give away their hard-earned advantages.
Ultimately, CFJ urged the Court to preserve competition and innovation by granting Google’s stay request in anticipation of Google’s petition for certiorari seeking reversal of this unprecedented expansion of antitrust remedies.
The Committee for Justice, founded in 2002, is a nonprofit that advances the rule of law and constitutionally limited government through advocacy on legal and policy issues. Additionally, our Alliance on Antitrust coalition underscores that the consumer welfare standard must remain the bedrock of U.S. antitrust law. This standard—objective and party-neutral—has for decades provided the clear, predictable framework necessary to ensure antitrust enforcement serves consumers rather than particular competitors."
Media Inquiries: Ashley Baker; abaker@committeeforjustice.org
