On Friday, Epic games won a rather one-sided condition against Google App Store payment policies. The decision is backed up by years of litigation between Epic Games and the Google App Store.
Epic Games and Google have reached a temporary ceasefire in their yet to be concluded legal battle over Bandcamp.
Bandcamp is a digital music store known for its unique song selections and direct artist payments.
Epic games, one of the leading digital gaming providers and creators of legendary games like Fortnite and Rocket League, acquired Bandcamp in early March this year.
The company says it is 100% committed to maintaining the sole priority of the platform, which accords artists 82% of every sale made.
Unlike most streaming platforms, Epic games hope to generate enough money for the artists using Bandcamp. All transactions are made through the app’s billing system, and they have the right to set prices.
In a press statement, the company representatives said, “Bandcamp will play an important role in Epic’s vision to build out a creator marketplace ecosystem for content, technology, games, art, music, and more,” Epic said in a statement at the time.”
However, in April, Epic failed to incorporate Google’s payment method following the Google 2020 billing policy. The policy encompasses that Bandcamp, like many other streaming platforms, will use Google’s billing system and pay additional fees. This caused an uproar and a legal issue.
Bandcamp CEO and co-founder, Ethan Diamond in a press statement, said, “We would have to either pass Google’s fees on to consumers (making Android a less attractive platform for music fans), pass fees on to artists (which we would never do), permanently run our Android business at a loss, or turn off digital sales in the Android app.”
Epic filed an injunction to the existing antitrust lawsuit against Google. The injunction entails Epic asking for the full rights to permit Bandcamp to continue its former operations rather than adapting the Google payment system.
Google previously stated that pulling them out of the billing system on their platform could see the retraction and expulsion from the Google play store.
On Friday, the favor was on Bandcamp’s side, which permits the billing operations on their site on any Android devices. This was until the case against Google and Epic was resolved.
Audiences and fans on Bandcamp can continue to support their favorite artist and play and stream their favorite songs or albums without hassle.
Bandcamp, in a statement, said Google doesn’t have the right to ban them and not put up updates for their app on the Google play store.
Until the lawsuit between Google and Epic is resolved, Bandcamp says it will place 10% of its revenue made from Android devices in escrow.
The court will decide to release the funds to Google if it believes it’ll cause a clash between payment methods.
The 10% commission has sparked interest as Google charges 15% to 30% commissions for in-app purchases for the majority of game developers. Google offered Bandcamp a subsidized fee following the court case.
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