Google isn’t waiting for a settlement — the 30 percent Android app store fee is dead
is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
In November, Epic and Google jointly proposed a settlement that would change Android’s fate globally without cracking open Google’s Android monopoly quite the way it otherwise might. Today, Google has decided it’s not waiting for that settlement to be approved: it’s moving forward with many of its proposed changes right now.
By June 30th, Google writes, it will lower its app store fees in the US, UK, and European Economic Area to 20 percent in some cases, down from 30 percent. By the end of the year, it will launch a “Registered App Stores” program outside of the US, and it will let app developers offer their own billing systems “alongside Google Play’s billing” if they pay a different fee.
Epic, which quietly negotiated a secret $800 million deal with Google before the proposed settlement, is applauding the changes. But they are nuanced, some may be controversial, and while Epic and Google both say these changes settle the companies’ disputes worldwide — “We are also excited to announce that we’ve resolved all our disputes with Epic Games globally!” writes Android boss Sameer Samat — both companies are still in court in the US where a judge has already ordered more to be done.
We’re reading through court documents and company blog posts right now; watch this space.
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