Google settlement with Epic caps Play Store fees, boosts other Android app stores

Google has spent the last few years waging a losing battle against Epic Games, which accused the Android maker of illegally stifling competition in mobile apps. Losses in court left Google to make sweeping changes to the Play Store, but Google appeared poised to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court. That is unlikely now that Epic and Google have reached a settlement in the case. It still needs to be approved by the judge, but the agreement provides a framework for long-term changes to Android app distribution that would apply globally.

Late last month, Google was forced to make the first round of mandated changes to the Play Store to comply with the court’s ruling. It grudgingly began allowing developers to direct users to alternative payment options and app downloads outside of Google’s ecosystem. By next summer, Google was supposed to open up Android to third-party app stores in a big way.

These changes were only mandated for three years and in the United States. The new agreement includes a different vision for third-party stores on Android—one that Google finds more palatable and that still gives Epic what it wants. If approved, the settlement will lower Google’s standard fee for developers. There will also be new support in Android for third-party app stores that will reduce the friction of leaving the Google bubble. Under the terms of the settlement, Google will support these changes through at least June 2032.

Google’s Android chief, Sameer Samat, and Epic CEO Tim Sweeny announced the deal late on November 4. Sweeny calls it an “awesome proposal” that “genuinely doubles down on Android’s original vision as an open platform.”

Samat says the settlement achieves the overarching goal of increasing choice and competition, but it does that “all while keeping users safe.”