Google will temporarily let Match use alternate payment systems ahead of 2023 trial

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Wall Street Journal reported that Match Group, the company behind dating apps like OkCupid, will be able to keep their apps on the Play Store while offering alternate payment systems.

Match Group filed a complaint against the company, accusing them of monopolizing the market for distributing apps and taking up to a 30 percent cut. Match Group withdrew its request for a temporary restraining order on Friday after concessions were made by Google.

Match Group's apps can be found in the Play Store, but they must be used with third-party payment systems.

Match has set up a $40 million escrow fund and is required to keep track of all the fees it will owe to Google if an official agreement is not reached. The companies will go to trial in April. Match is accused of breaching its Developer Distribution Agreement in the meantime.

Like Match, the Bandcamp is in a legal battle. Last month, Epic filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the removal of the music storefront from the app store.

On Friday, the company announced that it had reached an agreement similar to the one made with the company, which allowed it to stay on the Play Store while using its own payment system. The music platform says it will place 10 percent of its proceeds from purchases on the platform in an escrow fund until the antitrust lawsuit is resolved. The final ruling of the lawsuit against Apple was that there was no real winner.

Match Group and Epic Games are both members of the Coalition of App Fairness, a group of companies that fight against policies it views as anticompetitive, including Apple's rules that discourage developers from using alternate payment processors on their respective app stores. The first platform to test using its own payment system on the Play Store was announced by Google in March.

Developers and government regulators in various countries have criticized the policies of both Apple and Google for their app store. The Open App Markets Act was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee in February and the EU is going to regulate Big Tech in the spring of 2023. South Korea has enacted legislation requiring both Apple and Google to let developers use third-party payment systems in their apps, as well as the Netherlands taking issue with Apple's in-app payment policies.