Brussels has sent questionnaires to Google’s competitors, scrutinizing billing terms and developer fees for the Google Play Store.
According to two people familiar with the situation, the European Commission’s antitrust regulators are looking into Google’s app store rules.
According to 2 individuals who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Google’s competitors have received private questionnaires from Brussels exploring billing arrangements and developer fees for the US tech giant’s Play Store.
According to the sources, an inquiry of Google’s Play Store rules in the Netherlands will likely be halted to make room for the EU investigation, as suspicions of anticompetitive behaviour will need to be investigated on an EU-wide scale.
Developer costs for access to the Google Play Store can reach up to 30%, and developers were previously prohibited from using other billing methods to collect payment from consumers.
According to a Google spokeswoman, the company has been addressing “a number of things” with the Commission, including recent improvements to make Play Store terms and conditions fairer and to address developer claims of unfair behaviour.
In late July, the company announced that it would allow certain app developers to use alternate billing systems in the Play Store for collecting money from European consumers, as well as lower developer fees. Google positioned the decision as a first step toward complying with the EU’s newly approved key laws for the digital economy, the Digital Markets Act. The laws impose a slew of bans and requirements on some of the world’s biggest tech companies, like Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft.
However, some European Commission officials working on the new regulation’s enforcement are concerned that Google’s recent actions may not be sufficient to ensure compliance.
The Digital Markets Act is on track to be written into the EU law this October, and tech firms that fall under its purview will be required to comply by early 2024.
