The European Union has introduced new rules that govern how digital distribution platforms like Google Play and the iOS App Store can remove games from their online marketplaces.

We’re going to mention the new rules by name only once and then never again because it takes up an entire paragraph on its own. “Regulation 2019/1150 of the European Parliament and of the Council on promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services,” as it is called, went into effect on July 12, 2020. The rules are sort of a beginning to the end of the Wild West nature of online digital distribution platforms, like Google Play.

The rules set limitations on just how sales platforms can treat developers and publishers. They prevent platforms from changing their terms and conditions arbitrarily and without warning while also ensuring that each platform has a complaint system in place so that if a game is under dispute for breaking those terms and conditions the developer at least has a chance to respond.

Before July 12, platforms could just take down any game being sold on their storefronts with no warning and no explanation. Now, platforms must provide 30 days’ notice before a game is removed and also provide a statement explicitly pointing out how that game is in violation of the platform’s terms and conditions. Developers can then dispute the complaint within those 30 days or make necessary changes to the offending game.

Any changes to those terms and conditions must also be provided to all developers and publishers in writing with 30 days’ notice as well.

There are other rules that go into effect too, such as greater transparency for platform ranking algorithms so that smaller developers know how to get further up in the rankings, as well transparency rules governing how a platform treats large and small publishers differently.

Data privacy is also a big issue, where all platforms must publish guidelines for what data they access and collect from developers, publishers, and users.

These new rules only apply to platforms that facilitate a direct transaction between the player and developer/publisher, so home consoles from Sony and Microsoft are exempt from these rules. These rules also only apply in the European Union, but that might be enough to convince platforms to enact the same rules worldwide.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz, EUR-Lex