Today the DMA comes into force and large companies such as Google or Apple have already adapted to the new European regulations. It was Google that fully revealed the latest batch of changes coming to the Google Play Store yesterday, highlighting two: the possibility for developers to link to external sites to announce promotions or complete purchases, and third-party payment gateways. The question remains whether this will require new commissions, as is the case with Apple.

Yes it turned out.

DMA compliance = new commissions. As detailed on a support page from Google, “participating developers [en el programa de ofertas externas] “These are subject to our payment policy and applicable service fees described below, which support our investments in Play and Android.”

similar to apple. This is the same path that Cupertinos follow. Apple has reduced commissions on the App Store but will continue to charge for app downloads from alternative stores. Apple calls this the “Base Technology Fee” and in essence, it’s an annual cost of €0.50 per installation per account, with the first million being free. According to Apple, this fee reflects the value developers receive from the company’s tools and platforms. The situation is exactly the same for Google. In his own words:

“In order to comply with Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations, developers may enroll in the external bidding program. In order to continue our investments in the ecosystem, developers participating in the external bidding program will be subject to a new service fee model for the user. , purchases consisting of an initial acquisition fee and an ongoing service fee.”

Google’s new commissions. Developers participating in the external promotion program will face two new commissions:

• Initial acquisition rate: 5% for auto-renewing subscriptions and 10% for other in-app digital service and feature offerings. For Google, this commission represents the value Google Play has in facilitating initial user acquisition.
• Ongoing Service Fee: 7% for auto-renewing subscriptions and 17% for other in-app digital service and feature offerings. Google justifies this fee with “ongoing services like parental controls, security scanning, fraud prevention, and ongoing app updates.”

You can leave it if the user wishes.. Interestingly, Google states that the developer can stop paying the second fee if the user approves. As Google explains, “because users purchased the app through Play with the expectation of receiving services such as parental controls, security analytics, fraud prevention, and ongoing app updates, stopping services also requires user consent.”

In the table below we show an example of what the commission structure will look like after the new changes.

For everything including games. The external promotion program is available for games and apps on all operating systems including mobile, tablet, ChromeOS, Android TV and WearOS.

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