Amazon stops customers from downloading digital content from Android shopping app

Amazon customers will no longer be allowed to download e-books as the company cuts Android shopping app digital downloads altogether.

Instead, the retail giant is asking customers to buy books through its website or the Kindle app.

This comes a year after Google Play’s announcement that asked companies with an annual turnover of more than $1 million to pay a 30 per cent commission on all in-app purchases to Google.

Google also reduced the commission to 15 percent for the first $1 million of revenue earned by developers.

Amazon says its new policy is due to the Google store policies without saying what impact it has had on Amazon sales.

Amazon recently reported its first quarterly loss since 2015, in April. This was due to low online sales and a fall in the company’s shares.

Amazon’s iOS shopping app has had the same policy for years because of a similar fees by Apple.

These commissions by Google and Apple are being contested legally in the United Kingdom. The claim calls the 30 percent cut excessive and seeks damages of up to £920 million on behalf of UK’s 19.5 million Android users.

Rijul Baath contributed to this report