Introduction of User Choice Billing

Google has announced that it will start offering user choice billing in the UK, giving Google Play developers the ability to use other billing options instead of Google's own system. This change kicks in on March 29, initially only to non-game developers.

If developers opt for it, they cannot replace Google Play billing altogether. Instead, the third-party route will be offered as an option. Developers who opt to use an alternative billing option get a 4% discount from the fees they pay to Google (to account for the fees that third parties may also charge).

Background and Motivation

Google's move is actually a long-awaited response to a Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation dating back to 2022. At that time, the competition watchdog published a report based on a year-long study of the mobile ecosystem and noted that both Google and Apple's power in the market could be subject to regulatory scrutiny.

The companies' app stores — where they were the sole in-app billing providers for their respective platforms — was a particular point of focus when investigating Google and Apple's anticompetitive duopoly status. That was only the start. In 2023, Google proposed that it could offer user choice billing to developers to settle the antitrust probe.

Global Expansion of User Choice Billing

Countries where Google already offers user choice billing include the US, India, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, and the European Economic Area (EEA), which all follow the same commissions and charges as in the UK.