Google lowers Play Store fees: What's really behind the change of course?

Luca Fontana

5.3.2026

Translation: machine translated

Google is lowering its infamous 30 per cent commission in the Play Store - and opening up Android to real competition for the first time. What looks like a voluntary change of course is actually the result of a legal dispute with Epic Games that has been going on for years.

Google is turning one of the most controversial screws in the digital economy: the 30 per cent commission that the company has charged on purchases in the Play Store for years will soon be a thing of the past. Google has now officially announced this - not because the company is particularly generous, but because a US court has ordered it to do so.

What does this mean in practice? If someone bought an app for 10 francs, Google previously kept 3 francs. In future, it will be 2 francs or less.

Less commission, more competition

In concrete terms, the standard fee will fall to 20 per cent in the EU, UK and USA by the end of June 2026. Those who participate in Google's new programmes «App Experience» or «Games Level Up» will only pay 15 per cent in certain cases. For subscriptions, the commission will drop to 10 per cent. The changes will even apply worldwide by the end of 2027.

The starting point is a long-running legal dispute between Google and Epic Games, the developer behind «Fortnite», which wanted to operate its own in-game store. Epic sued because Google systematically obstructed third-party stores on Android and abused its monopoly position with its 30 per cent fee. At the end of 2023, a US court ruled in favour of Epic. But that was just the beginning of another round of legal tug-of-war.

In November 2025, both parties finally agreed on a settlement. However, Google decided not to wait for a court confirmation of the settlement before implementing the promised reforms. This makes the changes seem more voluntary than they are.

Android opens up - but only halfway

Parallel to this, Google is officially opening up Android to alternative app stores. With the new «Registered App Stores» programme, third-party providers can register with Google, must meet security and quality requirements and pay a small one-off registration fee «in the region of several hundred dollars», as Google told The Verge. In return, users should be able to install such stores much more smoothly than before - no more tedious downloading from the web, no more ominous security warnings.

That sounds like a real change. And it is - with a big but. Google remains the authority that decides which store is allowed to use the programme. There is no independent review centre. Anyone who is rejected can lodge an objection, but in the end the final say lies with the company. Real market liberalisation looks different.

The most expensive muzzle in tech history

Google's Android boss Sameer Samat naturally formulates the comparison agreed with Epic differently: «This is not just the implementation of requirements. We are proactively evolving because we believe that a modern platform must be based on choice and user security.» You can believe that - or not. The fact that a US court was necessary as a catalyst speaks for itself.

The role of Epic CEO Tim Sweeney in this deal is particularly piquant. The man who for years publicly labelled Google as «gangster-like» and «deceptive» has not only ceded Epic's rights to sue in the settlement - he has also negotiated away his right to criticise Google's app store practices until at least September 2032. According to the text of the contract, he even undertakes to publicly promote Google's approach and describe it as «pro-competitive and exemplary».

You could also call it a golden muzzle.

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.

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