Google will reduce the lucrative commissions charged on its Android app store and introduce a certification pathway for rival app stores, marking a major shift after a bruising antitrust battle that led to rulings declaring its setup an illegal monopoly. The proposed changes were filed Wednesday in a federal court in San Francisco, representing the latest development in a case that began in August 2020 when Epic Games sued Google to challenge the dominance of its Play Store payment system.
Play Store fees to drop to 10–20 per cent
Under the proposal, Google will lower its baseline commissions on subscriptions and e-commerce transactions from the existing 15 per cent to 30 per cent range to between 10 per cent and 20 per cent. The company will also introduce a new 5 per cent fee option for payment processing.
App developers will still be free to use third-party payment systems instead of Google’s own. Additionally, consumers will be allowed to download apps from alternative stores that complete a certification process.
Although certification is not mandatory, alternative app stores that register with Google are less likely to trigger security warnings.
Legal pressure after Supreme Court rejection
Google’s concessions come five months after the Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear the company’s appeal challenging a lower court ruling. The earlier decision followed a 2023 trial in which a jury determined that Google’s Play Store operated as an illegal monopoly. The presiding judge had ordered sweeping changes to the platform in October 2024.
US District Judge James Donato must now approve Google’s proposed revisions as an alternative to the more dramatic overhaul previously ordered. Google has requested an April 9 hearing to address questions about the changes.
Epic Games welcomes the move
Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, best known for developing the video game Fortnite, supported the proposed settlement.
“Epic has been advocating for open platforms for a long time, and this really brings Android up to the status of a truly open platform,” Sweeney said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Google’s Android chief, Sameer Samat, said the company is ready to move forward after years of legal conflict.
“We think it’s really great to focus more energy and time on building than on quarrelling,” Samat said.
Global rollout planned
Google intends to extend the revised Play Store model globally, pending regulatory approval in other countries.
The rollout is expected to begin in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.
Impact on Alphabet and broader antitrust scrutiny
The lower commissions could affect profits at Alphabet Inc., whose market value now stands at USD 3.7 trillion, roughly four times higher than when Epic filed its lawsuit in 2020.
Alphabet is also facing additional legal challenges. Google’s search engine has been ordered to share more data after being ruled an illegal monopoly in a separate case brought by the US Justice Department. Meanwhile, elements of Google’s digital advertising network were deemed an abusive monopoly in another federal lawsuit, with a judge in Virginia considering potential remedies, including a possible breakup.
Ongoing dispute with Apple
Epic’s 2020 legal campaign also targeted Apple Inc. over its iPhone app store practices. That case remains entangled in disputes over alternative payment systems. Unlike the Google ruling, a federal judge concluded that Apple’s app store does not constitute a monopoly, though changes were ordered to make alternative payment options easier to access, a shift Epic argues has yet to fully materialise.
For now, Sweeney said he plans to celebrate the Play Store outcome, quoting a Rolling Stones lyric: “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try, you can often get what you need. And what we need is competition”.
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