Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Feed Link: https://www.engadget.com/
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Title: Apple updates its App Store guidelines to allow external payment
options

Date: Fri, 02 May 2025 12:30:39 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/apps/apple-updates-i...

Apple has updated its App Store guidelines to comply with the orders of a
California court, which required the company to immediately stop collecting
commissions on purchases that weren't paid through the App Store. As noticed
by 9to5Mac, the most prominent change in the guidelines states that there are
now no prohibitions on "buttons, external links, or other calls to action
that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase,"
as long as it's for an app on the US storefront. Further, developers don't
have to request for an entitlement from Apple to be able to offer external
link purchases on apps for the United States storefront anymore.

In the section stating that certain applications, such as reader apps and
apps that sell goods and services, cannot encourage users to opt for third-
party purchasing methods in-app, Apple added that the prohibition doesn't
apply to apps on the US store. "The App Review Guidelines have been updated
for compliance with a United States court decision regarding buttons,
external links, and other calls to action in apps," Apple said in a
statement.

These changes come as a result of a recent ruling by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez
Rogers, who found that Apple violated her 2021 ruling for Epic Games' lawsuit
against Apple. Back then, she ordered Apple to allow developers to direct
users to other payment systems that would let them avoid paying the company a
30 percent cut.

However, Apple still took a 27 percent cut from external purchases, prompting
Epic Games to accuse the company of non-compliance in a new legal filing last
year. Apple also showed users a "scare screen" when they try to make external
purchases, discouraging them from using third-party payment systems. In
addition to ordering Apple to stop collecting fees from purchases made
outside the App Store, Gonzalez Rogers also prohibited Apple from creating
rules that would prevent developers from presenting customers with buttons
and links for external payments

In response, Epic chief Tim Sweeney announced that Fortnite will be coming
back to iOS next week. He also said that the video game company will bring
back Fortnite on iOS for everyone and will drop all litigation regarding the
issue if Apple adopts the no-commission policy worldwide, but that doesn't
seem to be the case for now. Other companies are now also looking to roll out
updates that would allow them to bypass Apple's commission for external
payments. One of them is Spotify, which announced that it had already
submitted an update that would allow customers in the US to pay outside the
App Store.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/apps/apple-updates-i...
external-payment-options-123039994.html?src=rss

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