Google just opened the Play Store to alternative payments. Effective June 30, developers can use their own billing or redirect users to external sites.

For fintechs like Revolut and PayPal, this is a direct win. It removes the forced 30% tax on digital transactions and lets them own the payment relationship. But for merchants selling in-app content, the compliance picture gets messier. You now need to manage multiple billing systems, reconcile across payment rails, and ensure your checkout flow doesn’t violate Google’s new rules on redirects.

My view: The real shift isn’t just about lower fees. It’s about who controls the customer data. When a user pays via Revolut inside an app, Google loses visibility into that transaction. For PSPs and EMIs, this opens a door to offer white-label billing solutions that bypass the traditional app store economics.

As Frederic Yves Michel NOEL highlights, the operational strain on payment teams is now twofold. For those building in-app checkout flows, the biggest operational headache today—is it reconciling payments across multiple billing providers or managing the redirect compliance requirements?