• by Wendy Davis , 2 hours ago

Google and Fortnite developer Epic Games have agreed to settle their high profile battle over Play store policies, the companies said late Thursday in a joint filing with U.S. District Court Judge James Donato in the Northern District of California.

The deal involves "changes to Android and Google Play that focus on expanding developer choice and flexibility, lowering fees, and encouraging more competition all while keeping users safe," Sameer Samat, president of Android ecosystem, tweeted Thursday.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney praised Google's "awesome proposal," saying in a tweet that the settlement agreement "genuinely doubles down on Android's original vision as an open platform to streamline competing store installs globally."

The agreement will only take effect if Donato agrees to revise an injunction he issued last year, after a jury determined that Epic proved Google unlawfully created or maintained an illegal monopoly in two “markets” -- Android app distribution, and Android in-app billing. The jury also found that Google wrongly tied company's ability to distribute through the Play store to Google's payment system.

Donato's broad injunction included provisions requiring Google to host other companies' app stores, and allow outside businesses access to its library of apps.

Google opposed that injunction, and recently sought Supreme Court review of the jury's verdict as well as Donato's injunction. The Supreme Court hasn't yet acted on Google's petition for an appeal, which presumably will be withdrawn if the settlement goes through.

Among other terms, the proposed settlement would allow Google to charge commissions of up to 20% on virtual currency and other in-app purchases in games, if those purchases affect the game's outcome.

The deal would also allow Google to charge commissions up to 20% for in-app purchases installed or updated by Google Play, when payments are processed through external web links. Some other commissions would be capped at 9%.

The settlement also requires Google to modify the Android operating system to allow users to install a "registered app store" from the web with a single click.