Google and Match settled their antitrust case today, even as the court battle for the tech giant continues with Epic Games over Fortnite. Under the settlement, Match Group, which runs a roster of dating applications including Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid, Match.com, and more, will be allowed to put in "user choice billing" by March 31, 2024. This will let users pay using other billing systems besides Google's.

Some of the initial testers of the new system were Spotify and Bumble, which Google started testing in November 2022. Since then, Spotify's third-party billing option started rolling out worldwide as Google extended choice user billing to more countries outside the U.S.
The program, so far, has not allowed third-party app markers that charge users for purchases and subscriptions to do away entirely with the commission Google requires. Instead, it offers a small percentage off the standard 15% to 30% commission. Currently, that discount is 4%, per Google's help documentation. The program is also still a pilot open to all developers globally who are selling apps to users in the supported 35 markets where it's now available. Google has not said when the program will become globally available.

The agreement stipulates that the Match Group cannot only use its billing system; it has to provide both its system and the existing Google Play billing system. Users will be at liberty to choose whichever way they prefer to pay.

The settlement agreement, the spokesperson said, includes a provision that Google will continue to work with Match Group in other areas where the two companies partner, including in Google Cloud and in the use of Google's AI technologies. This would suggest that the rift between the two tech companies incurred by the lawsuit may have had consequences that made the relationship even more complicated across the business lines of both Google and Match.

Like Apple, Google has long stressed that its commission structure is not only based on its ability to process payments for its customers. Instead, it suggests that the fees help to support the entire Google Play and Android app ecosystem, including hosting, app discovery, developer tools and other resources necessary to create an app business.

But as the bigger players like Match and Epic argued, they don't need the same scale as other developers. Indeed, as Epic showed, they could self-distribute applications and deal with their own payments. They felt that, by extension, they should at least have the option to have a more direct relationship with their paying customers, and that Google preventing this was an anti-competitive concern.

We are pleased to reach a settlement agreement with Match Group," says a Google spokesperson, in a prepared statement. "This ensures we can continue to provide our shared users the secure, seamless, and high-quality experience people expect from apps on Google Play while maintaining Google's ability to invest in the Android ecosystem and deliver value across an app's full lifecycle," they added.

"Today, the Match plaintiffs and Google informed the court that they have reached a binding term sheet for a settlement of their respective claims against each other in the Match Group, LLC et al vs. Google LLC et al lawsuit.". Under the terms, the $40 million deposited to escrow will be returned to Match Group and no other sums shall be due from the Match plaintiffs to Google under the claims of the lawsuit for the year ending December 31, 2023," Match Group said in a statement accompanying its Q3 earnings report.

Recently, Google upped the ante and pushed Match Group for more money in escrow, saying that the $40 million would not be enough to cover the missed payments. (Match had been allowed to escrow funds to cover commissions while the lawsuit was underway.)

Match noted that the parties agreed that by March 31, 2024, its apps will implement Google’s User Choice Billing, reducing its commission payments from 15% and 30% to 11% and 26%, respectively.

The parties will enter a new partnership agreement that will provide value exchange across their broad relationship, which we expect will essentially offset the additional costs that Match Group brands expect to incur over the three years starting in 2024 associated with the implementation and continued use of User Choice Billing in compliance with Google's payment policy during that period," Match Group also said.

Aside from that settlement news, Match Group announced a 9% year-over-year revenue increase to $882 million in Q3; Tinder's portion up 11% to $509 million.

Whether this settlement with Epic Games will prod it also into setting up an agreement with the tech giant remains unclear. In case it doesn't, it has scheduled its presentation in court next week.

Update: The chief executive of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, posted on X that they intend to proceed to trial against Google: "Epic will go to trial against Google alone. We reject Google's so-called 'user choice billing', in which Google controls, surveils, and taxes transactions between users and developers."