Today marked the deadline for Google to outline its compliance with Judge James Donato’s order regarding Android. This involves opening up the platform for third-party app stores, discontinuing the enforcement of its Google Play Billing system as a requirement for its app store, and allowing developers to link to alternative app download methods outside of the Play Store in the U.S. However, Google isn’t simply allowing developers to operate freely. The company has updated its support pages, announcing a new deadline of January 28th for developers to enroll in specific Google programs for “alternative billing” and “external content links.” These programs are expected to come with substantial fees if Judge Donato doesn’t approve the settlement proposed by Epic and Google.
While Google isn’t charging fees just yet, it plans to impose charges of $2.85 for every app and $3.65 for every game installed within 24 hours of a user clicking an external download link. Additionally, they’ll take a 20 percent cut from in-app purchases and 10 percent from auto-renewing subscriptions. Developers will still need to submit their apps for Google’s review, utilize a Google API for tracking, and report all transactions (including any $0 free trials) to participate.
For developers planning to implement their own billing solutions, the situation isn’t much better; they’ll receive only a 5 percent discount compared to Google’s existing fees. That means they’ll face a 25 percent charge for in-app purchases and 10 percent for auto-renewing subscriptions. Just like before, developers will need to integrate a Google API for tracking and report transactions within 24 hours.
To ease the financial burden a bit, Google will cap some of these fees at 10 percent of a developer’s first $1 million in earnings, making it somewhat more manageable for smaller developers. However, this isn’t much of a change, as Google already has a similar cap in place at 15 percent.
How Judge Donato will respond to Google’s fee structure remains to be seen. In a previous case, when Apple informed Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers that it would require a 27 percent fee for external payments, she found Apple in contempt of court, a decision recently upheld by an appeals court. The court did indicate that Apple could charge a commission on linked purchases but only what’s necessary to cover costs associated with external links.
Google maintains that “the fees associated with the external content links program reflect the value provided by Android and Play and support our continued investments across Android and Play.” Yet, they also clarified that they won’t be collecting fees immediately. They stated, “In the future, Google intends to apply a service fee on successful transactions and downloads completed via external content links. At this time, however, Google is not assessing these fees and is therefore not requiring developers in this program to report these transactions or downloads to Google.”
In a joint progress report shared today, Epic’s and Google’s lawyers noted that while Epic agrees with the January 28th deadline and other stipulations, it opposes the service fees Google is considering and will contest these fees if they come into effect.
It’s important to note that these plans may not materialize if Judge Donato accepts Google and Epic’s proposed settlement, which would generally extend worldwide (rather than just in the U.S.) and features lower standard transaction fees. However, Google indicated that even this settlement would likely include fees on alternative billing and external app downloads, a point of skepticism raised by Judge Donato back in November. He has scheduled an evidentiary hearing for January 22nd before making a final decision.
As Google’s support pages continue to evolve with the ongoing Epic v. Google case, we’ve archived the current content below.
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