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     App Store Apps May Start Including Payment Links to External Websites

   Adam Engst

   I have worked hard to avoid wasting my time and yours on the
   brain-sucking minutiae of the years-long antitrust challenge brought by
   Epic Games against Apple. To make a [1]long story short, Epic wanted to
   break Apple's hold on the App Store, bypassing it entirely or at least
   reducing the 30% commission. At trial in 2021, however, the judge
   decided in favor of Apple on nine of ten counts. On the remaining
   count, she ruled that Apple violated the anti-steering provisions of
   the California Unfair Competition Law by refusing to allow developers
   to mention external payment options. Both Apple and Epic appealed, and
   the US Supreme Court just declined to hear either appeal, putting the
   lower court judge's ruling into effect.

   The practical upshot is that [2]Apple now allows developers to add
   external payment links, so you may start seeing the option for
   out-of-app payments in apps. Developers will have to jump through
   numerous hoops, abide by draconian Apple restrictions about the text
   and graphic treatment of external payment links, and put up with a
   scary-sounding warning about how Apple isn't responsible for anything
   that happens with purchases made on the Web. Developers must also
   report all transactions to Apple within 15 days after the end of each
   month.

   That's because these external payments aren't commission-free. Apple
   has long said that the 30% is a commission fee, not a transaction fee
   (online transaction fees are usually about 3%), and it will continue to
   charge commissions for external payments. In the end, external payments
   enjoy only a slight savings'3%, in fact. Apple charges 30% for App
   Store purchases or 15% for small developers and for the second and
   subsequent years of auto-renewing subscriptions. The commission
   structure for external purchases made within 7 days of the link being
   followed is 27% or 12% for small developers or subscription renewals.

   In other words, because developers will have to pay 3% transaction fees
   to process credit cards, there's no financial win in adopting external
   payments'they'll be paying 30% or 15% regardless. Despite the
   commission fee wash, some developers, particularly larger ones, may see
   the extra work involved in external payments as worthwhile in exchange
   for being able to interact more directly with customers.

References

   Visible links
   1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Games_v._Apple
   2. https://developer.apple.com/support/storekit-external-entitlement-us/

   Hidden links:
   3. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2024/01/App-Store-external-payment-warning.jpg

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