Google Revamps Android App Stores to Resolve Antitrust Claims

Alphabet Inc.’s Google unveiled a new system for apps on its Android phones and tablets Wednesday, agreeing to easier access for rivals and lower fees for developers in a bid to resolve US antitrust litigation and comply with new regulatory requirements in Europe and elsewhere.

“These announcements are not about just doing what’s required,” Sameer Samat, Google’s vice president of product development, said in an interview with Bloomberg News. The moves go “well beyond” what is being required by legal changes in Europe and the UK, he said.

Under the proposal, other companies can register with Google, pay a one-time fee and offer an app store on Android, Samat said. Google also will also lower the fees it charges developers from a standard 30% to as low as 15% or 10% on recurring subscriptions, he said. Fee changes in the US, UK and EU are expected to go into effect by June, with changes in Australia, Korea and Japan before the end of 2026.

Epic Games Inc., which had been involved in a long-running antitrust case with Google, said the new policies would eliminate the Fortnite-maker’s concerns with the Android platform and resolve litigation in the US, UK, Australia and elsewhere.

“Anybody can launch a competitive app store now,” Epic Chief Executive Officer Tim Sweeney said in a joint interview with Samat.

Alphabet doesn’t offer standalone figures for how much revenue is attributable to its Android operating system or the Google Play store. Documents from the US litigation with Epic indicated the technology giant’s app store brought in $14.66 billion in sales in 2020. Analysts had estimated that changes to its app store required by new regulations and the litigation could result in a $1 billion loss in gross profit.

Antitrust Probes

In March 2025, the European Commission chastised Google for allegedly breaching the bloc’s landmark Digital Markets Act by preventing app developers from steering consumers to offers outside of its Play Store. The company is expected to face penalties over that alleged breach, with eventual fines as high as 10% of its global annual revenue.

Google has already faced €9.5 billion ($11.3 billion) in fines from the EU over competition law violations. Last month, the company was handed a six-month deadline to lift technical barriers to rival AI search assistants on Android.

In the UK, the antitrust watchdog previously designated Google as having Strategic Market Status in the mobile platforms market — effectively a measure which puts in guardrails for how powerful tech firms behave. Under the rules, the Competition and Markets Authority can impose conduct requirements on firms that include making it easier for users to download apps and pay for content outside of Google’s own platform.

Last month, Google committed to making changes to its app store in the UK beginning in April.

In a court filing Wednesday in San Francisco federal court, Google and Epic said the Android-maker would also share a catalog of apps available in its Play Store with rivals and allow alternate app stores onto Android phones after registration. The new proposal should resolve concerns raised by Judge James Donato regarding a November 2025 settlement, they said. The judge would still need to approve it, though he has no role in changes outside the US.

Samat said changes to Google’s fee structure weren’t required by the US court in the Epic case or legislation in other parts of the world. But Google opted to revamp the fees it charges to help “modernize” the Android ecosystem, he said.

The new fee structure will decouple use of Google’s billing system from its app store, Google Play. Developers that want to use its billing services will pay a flat 5% fee, Samat said, or they can opt to use other payment processors.

A jury concluded in 2023 that Google’s Android policies violate antitrust law. Donato issued an injunction ordering Google to make its app catalog available to rival app stores so that they can better build competing products.

Donato’s injunction, which was later upheld by a federal appeals court, also banned preferential treatment for Google services on Android phones and required the company to let mobile app developers steer customers to lower payments outside of the Play Store.

Google and Epic later reached a settlement that would have eliminated the catalog sharing remedy, leading Donato to raise concerns at a January hearing that the new settlement was a “sweetheart deal” for Google.

(Updates with comments from Google, Epic Games and background on antitrust cases.)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Leah Nylen in Washington at lnylen2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Steve Stroth, Peter Blumberg

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