{"id":634521,"date":"2026-03-05T18:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/634521\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T18:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:32:14","slug":"google-lowering-fees-on-android-app-store-following-settlement-with-epic-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/634521\/","title":{"rendered":"Google lowering fees on Android app store following settlement with Epic Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google will lower the lucrative fees imposed on its Android app store and offer a way for rival options to gain its stamp of approval, ending a bruising legal battle that led to one of several rulings condemning its tactics as an illegal monopoly.<\/p>\n

The proposed changes filed Wednesday with a federal court in San Francisco mark the latest twist in a case that began in August 2020 when video game maker Epic Games filed an antitrust case seeking make it easier for alternative payment options to compete against Google\u2019s Play Store system, which charges 15% to 30% commissions on a wide variety of in-app transactions.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s concessions come five months after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal<\/a> of the company\u2019s attempt to overturn a federal judge\u2019s order requiring a far more extensive overhaul of the Play Store following a 2023 trial that culminated in a jury declaring the setup an illegal monopoly.<\/p>\n

\"IllustrationEpic Games initially filed an antitrust case seeking make it easier for alternative payment options to compete against Google\u2019s Play Store system in 2020. SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Backed into a legal corner, Google is now prepared to decrease its baseline commissions for subscriptions and e-commerce transactions into the 10% to 20% range while creating a new option that would charge 5% for payment processing.<\/p>\n

App developers could still choose to rely on another payment processing system besides Google\u2019s and consumers will be able to download apps from alternative stores that go through a certification process. <\/p>\n

Although not required, alternative app stores that go through the Google\u2019s registration process are less likely to provoke warnings about security risks.<\/p>\n

U.S. James Donato still must approve the proposed changes as an alternative to a more dramatic shakeup that he ordered in October 2024. <\/p>\n

Google is seeking an April 9 hearing before the judge to answer any questions about the revisions, which are being backed by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, whose North Carolina company is best known for making the Fortnite video game.<\/p>\n

\u201cEpic has been advocating for open platforms for a long time and this really brings Android up to the status of a truly open platform,\u201d Sweeney told The Associated Press during an interview that also included Sameer Samat, the Google executive in charge of Android.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe think it\u2019s really great to focus more energy and time on building than on quarreling,\u201d Samat said about Google\u2019s decision to finally strike a truce with Epic after years of acrimony.<\/p>\n

Google is planning to extend this new Play Store template<\/a> to the rest of the world, contingent on regulatory approval in other countries. <\/p>\n

The Mountain View, California, company intends to begin the rollout in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, Samat said.<\/p>\n

\"IllustrationGoogle is planning to extend the new Play Store template to the rest of the world. REUTERS<\/p>\n

The lower fees are likely to dent the profits of Google\u2019s corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., which is in a better position to weather the blow now that its market value stands at $3.7 trillion \u2014 four times more than when Epic filed its lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Alphabet also faces other possible setbacks with Google\u2019s search engine being ordered to share more of its collected data after being being declared an illegal monopoly in a different case brought by the U.S. Justice Department. <\/p>\n

Parts of the technology powering Google\u2019s digital ad network also were deemed an abusive monopoly last year in yet another federal lawsuit. A federal judge in Virginia is weighing whether to order a breakup in order to restore competition in that case.<\/p>\n

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Epic\u2019s 2020 attack against Google\u2019s Play Store coincided with a similar crusade against Apple\u2019s iPhone app store that still remains entangled in some legal disputes about how alternative payment systems can be managed.<\/p>\n

Sweeney isn\u2019t optimistic about reaching a deal with Apple that mirrors the Google concessions because the cases played out differently. In the Apple lawsuit, a federal judge concluded that the iPhone app store isn\u2019t a monopoly but still ordered changes designed to make it easier for consumers to navigate to alternative payment options \u2014 a shift that Epic argues still hasn\u2019t occurred.<\/p>\n

For now, Sweeney intends to savor the outcome of the Play Store case set to the soundtrack of a classic tune by the Rolling Stones.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the song says, \u2018You can\u2019t always get what you want, but if you try, you can often get what you need,\u2019 \u201d Sweeney said. \u201cAnd what we need is competition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Google will lower the lucrative fees imposed on its Android app store and offer a way for rival…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":634522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[17],"tags":[2718,64,16625,2722,336,611,242,158,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-634521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-android","tag-business","tag-fortnite","tag-google","tag-lawsuits","tag-mobile","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116178003555559205","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}