Law360 (October 29, 2025, 6:33 PM EDT) -- A California federal judge has refused to push back Wednesday's deadline for Google to begin complying with a three-year injunction requiring it to open up its Play Store to competition, denying the Google and Epic Games' joint rescheduling request following the U.S. Supreme Court's recent denial of Google's bid to stay the injunction.

In a one-sentence order filed in the docket Tuesday, U.S. District Judge James Donato of the Northern District of California denied the parties' second request to continue the injunction deadlines without elaborating on his reasoning.

The parties had filed their joint request on Tuesday, asking the judge to push back Wednesday's compliance deadline to Nov. 10, and to reset Thursday's deadline for a joint status update to Nov. 3. Judge Donato rejected both requests, marking a hard stop in compliance deadline delays.

Earlier this month, the judge already agreed to push back the compliance deadline from Oct. 22 to Wednesday, even though the Oct. 22 deadline was itself a delayed compliance deadline that had been the result of a stay in litigation as Google unsuccessfully pursued its appeal of Judge Donato's injunction and other aspects of the 2023 antitrust liability verdict.

The injunction is taking effect after years of litigation in a high-stakes legal battle that the Fortnite game maker launched against Google in 2020, at the same time it sued Apple Inc. over similar practices. Epic Games Inc. accused Google Play of monopolizing Android app distribution by placing numerous restrictions on app developers and charging fees of up to 30% on in-app purchases.

In December 2023, jurors found Google liable for antitrust violations, and after a multiday hearing in May 2024 into potential remedies, Judge Donato issued a three-year injunction in October 2024 requiring Google to open up the Google Play Store and barring Google from entering into exclusive distribution agreements with app developers. The injunction also blocks Google from paying companies not to compete in the app distribution market.

Google quickly appealed the injunction as well as various aspects of the verdict. But in July, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the lower court's monopolization findings and injunction, and last month, the appellate court denied Google's reconsideration bid, while also refusing to lift the pause that kept the mandate at bay while the search giant sought U.S. Supreme Court intervention.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court justices denied, without a detailed explanation, Google's request for a partial stay of the injunction while Google appeals.

Counsel and representatives for the parties didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

Epic Games is represented by Gary A. Bornstein, Yonatan Even, Michael J. Zaken, Lauren A. Moskowitz, Justin C. Clarke and M. Brent Byars of Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP.

Google is represented by Glenn D. Pomerantz of Munger Tolles & Olson LLP, and by Brian C. Rocca of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP.

The cases are Epic Games Inc. v. Google LLC et al., case number 3:20-cv-05671, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

–Additional reporting by Bryan Koenig.

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