(Telecompaper) Portugual's Aptoide, an alternative marketplace for Android apps, announced that a local court has ordered Google to stop removing its app from users' mobile phones without their knowledge. The company's lawyer, Carlos Nestal, described the decision as a landmark in that it marked the first case of an EU national court enforcing separation of the Android operating system and services that run on it, to allow rivals like Aptoide to compete with Google apps. "We believe this may apply to other situations where Google has competition," Nestal told Reuters, with Aptoide CEO describing the court's decision as "a signal for startups worldwide."