Amazon has quietly re-enabled the ability to make purchases within the Kindle app for Android users in the U.S. — This was reported by Good e-Reader and confirmed through our email correspondence with Amazon. The company added that the Kindle feature has been enabled for users in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands since August 2022 following E.U. regulations.
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The change stemmed from an October 2024 order from the U.S. District Court for California’s Northern District for Google to address anti-competitive conduct. This went into effect on November 1. Fortnite creator Epic Games brought the case against Google in 2020, claiming it was monopolizing how users downloaded their apps and made in-app purchases.
Among several rulings effective November 1, Judge James Donato banned Google from mandating the use of Google Play Billing on apps distributed on its Play Store; Google Play Billing charged developers up to 30% of earnings made through its platform. According to Google’s Service Fee page, developers earning under $1 million annually through activities facilitated by its services paid a 15% service charge. This increased to 30% for all earnings above $1 million. Now, applications can use their own billing systems to avoid the fee. Donato’s ruling also prevented Google from blocking developers from telling customers they didn’t need to use Google Play Billing (via Reuters). It can’t offer payments to companies to exclusively distribute on its service, or to grant exclusive features for app versions downloaded through Google Play. Donato’s ruling is effective until November 1, 2027. You can read the filing here (PDF). Kindle has over 100 million downloads through the Google Play Store.
Source: Good e-Reader, email correspondence with Amazon
Featured image © Tatsuya Endo, Shueisha / SPY×FAMILY Production Committee
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