Amazon: No more e-books in the Android app due to Google’s rules

Amazon has stopped selling digital goods in its Android app due to tighter payment guidelines in the Google Play Store. This also affects e-books for Amazon’s Kindle ecosystem: they can no longer be purchased in the Android app.

Amazon previously stopped selling audiobooks. This is the company’s response to Google’s stricter guidelines on the Play Store, which have been in effect since April 1. As of the date of the report, Google had discontinued several workarounds for the guidelines that were already in place. From June 1, all apps that don’t follow the rules will be removed from the App Store, Google confirms in a support document.

If you want to purchase eBooks from Amazon, you will find a note instead: “This app does not support purchases,” as it is written there. Link to explanation: In order to comply with Google’s guidelines, you will no longer be able to purchase new digital content from the app. Instead, you have to put the desired item in the wish list in the app and then buy it from your desktop computer.

stricter rules

Google introduced the changed guidelines in September 2020, at the height of discussions about the mandatory 30 percent fee, which the company adds to all digital sales generated on the Play Store. Google processes that 30 percent with its own payment method, which is mandatory on the Play Store. So app providers have been looking for ways to integrate their payment methods into their apps. Various transfers, such as integrating a browser window for payment processing, are prohibited under the new guidelines.

This prohibition explicitly includes redirecting to “WebViews, buttons, links, advertising messages, advertisements, or other calls to action built into applications” as well as arranging processes in which users are redirected from one application to another payment method Google Play is a billing system.

In recent months, the pressure on Google and Apple has increased. In South Korea, Google now has to allow alternative payment methods – the government has banned Google and Apple from charging their own payment methods “unreasonable fees” in their stores. The law on digital markets could also force Google to relax further. Google also wants to allow selected companies to sell their content at no charge. So far, only Spotify is allowed to do so.

(Then)