Apple had promised to comply with a Korean telecommunications law on opening up in-app payment systems in January 2022. Reluctantly, Cupertino announced on June 30 that it had done so.
A draconian regime for rogue developers
Apple is back in the nails in South Korea. The apple brand will allow developers to set up their own payment system in their applications. Until now, as in most countries, only Apple’s solution and its 30% commission were submitted to users.
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The American giant, however, decided to resist. First of all, it will continue to collect 26% commission from third-party payment systems. A small percentage less than in the Netherlands, where the local competition authority (ACM) imposed a similar measure for dating apps.
Developers will need to complete a statement on their sale to Cupertino to pay this commission. They are also forced to inform their users that they are leaving the Apple ecosystem.
Among other obligations, Apple also chooses how to establish this payment system, ” To comply with this law, developers can use StoreKit’s external purchase right. This right allows apps distributed on the App Store only in South Korea to provide an alternate in-app payment processing option. explains the company in a communicated.
Last obligation: the establishment of a third-party payment system will prevent the installation of alternatives, such as Apple’s system or external links. Finally, naturally, the developers will be responsible for the management of their users, whether for complaints, purchase history…
Apple is in danger of being bitten…
These draconian conditions are hardly surprising. Apple (and Google) fought bitterly in the peninsula against this 2021 legislation. The arguments against this law are now widely known, because repeated at will by Cupertino, more complexity for users, more fraud , less privacy.
Techcrunch recalls that on the Old Continent, in the Netherlands, Apple had tried to comply with the decision of the authorities with equally strict measures. The ACM immediately refused, bad news as European antitrust regulations, the Digital Markets Act, risk leading to similar measures in all European Union markets. In South Korea, the apple brand can only hope that the Korea Communication Commission is more conciliatory than its counterparts on the other side of the world.