Google has already allowed users to download apps outside the Play Store in accordance with the EU Digital Markets Act, but is now introducing two new commissions for this purpose.
Developers can refuse to pay recurring fees after two years if users agree.
«Because users purchased the app through the Play Store in the hope of receiving services such as parental controls, security scans, fraud prevention, and ongoing app updates, termination of services also requires user consent», Google said.
Google has added a chart to show how the fees would apply to a hypothetical third-party app:
In this way, Google is taking a similar approach to Apple, which has reduced its App Store fees but introduced new charges: in particular, a new 3% fee for «payment processing» for transactions that go through its store and for «basic technology», which will charge a flat fee of €0.50 for all app downloads after the first million installations.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has already criticized Google’s decision:
«Google has announced their malicious plans to comply with the Digital Markets Act… it looks like their illegal policy will be replaced by a new web transaction tax».
Earlier, Sweeney had made similar comments about Apple, which probably led to the fact that Epic’s developer account in the App Store was blocked (it was through it that the company planned to launch its own iOS store).
Source: TechCrunch, Engadget