Tinder fears it will be removed from Google Play Store, its parent firm files lawsuit

Match Group, the parent company of Tinder, does not want to pay the 30 per cent commission to Google for Play Store transactions and it fears doing so will get its apps kicked out of the Play Store.

Tinder is fearing that it will meet the same fate as Fortnite soon. Match Group, the dating app’s owner, has an apprehension that Google might boot Tinder and other dating apps because it found them violating the Play Store policy. Google’s 30 per cent commission on payments made through the Play Store is a controversial policy that Match Group is accused of not complying with. Match is not denying charges because it does not want to pay that fee, but to prevent Google from kicking its apps out of the Play Store for not doing so, it has filed a lawsuit — just like Epic Games, Fortnite’s owner, did.

Match’s lawsuit states that Google “illegally monopolised the market for distributing apps” on Android by forcing developers to use its Play Store billing for payments and then asking for a mandatory cut of 30 per cent on each one of them. The lawsuit follows several other cases against Alphabet’s Google for its anti-competitive approach in the app distribution on the Play Store. Among them is the famous lawsuit by Epic Games, which also sued Apple for the same reason of asking for a hefty cut in App Store payments.

"This lawsuit is a measure of last resort," Match chief executive Shar Dubey said. "We tried, in good faith, to resolve these concerns with Google, but their insistence and threats has left us no choice."

What Google is asking Match amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue even if everything is settled according to the Play Store policy. Match’s prominent dating app, Tinder, gives users options to pay for extra (read premium) services and one of them is its own payment system that comes with features such as instalments and bank transfers. Match’s own payment system is what Google wants shut and replaced with Play Store billing — a move that will reduce the company’s revenue from each transaction by 30 per cent.

Google charges all developers a 30 per cent cut on all payments made through Play Store billing. It explicitly mentioned back in 2020 that all apps selling digital goods must use Play Store’s billing system. So, Google is indirectly forcing every Android app that offers in-app purchases to users to pay a 30 per cent tax. Google, however, slashed its commission to 15 per cent for the first $1 million an app developer makes in March 2021 or later. Talking specifically about Match, most of its apps have been selling services to users without paying Google anything for about the past decade. But even so, Match is accusing Google of practising “bait and switch tactics”.

In its defence, Google said, “Like any business, we charge for our services, and like any responsible platform, we protect users against fraud.” It added that its tools help deter scams and fraud on Android and that it makes sense to charge developers for a safe environment, that is the Play Store.