Apple updates rules for app third-party payments in EU

Apple announces changes to external payments in EU.

Key changes include:

• Developers can communicate and promote offers for purchases available at a destination of their choice. The destination can be an alternative app marketplace, another app, or a website, and it can be accessed outside the app or via a web view that appears in the app.

• Developers may design and execute within their apps the communication and promotion of offers. This includes providing information about prices of subscriptions or any other offer available both within or outside the app, and providing explanations or instructions about how to subscribe to offers outside the application. These communications must provide accurate information regarding the digital goods or services available for purchase.

• Developers may choose to use an actionable link that can be tapped, clicked, or scanned, to take users to their destination.

• Developers can use any number of URLs, without declaring them in the app’s Info.plist.

• Links with parameters, redirects, and intermediate links to landing pages are permitted.

• Updated business terms for apps with the External Purchase Link Entitlement are being introduced to align with the changes to these capabilities.

Changes are following European Commission investigations.

Epic Games and Spotify representatives are still unsurprisingly unhappy with the changes.

Apple Developer:

• Updates to the StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement

• Alternative payment options on the App Store in the European Union

References and further reading:

• Apple Loosens App Store External Linking Rules and Changes Fee Structure in European Union

• Apple announces new fee structure for apps in the EU that link out to the web for purchases

• DMA Compliance: Initial Acquisition and Store Services Fees

• Epic Games & Spotify unsurprisingly unhappy with Apple's latest DMA update

• Epic Games and Spotify Say Apple's Latest DMA Changes Are 'Illegal' and 'Deliberately Confusing'

• Apple Announces New Fee Structure and Updated Guidelines for Apps in the EU That Link Out to the Web for Purchases

• Epic Games and Spotify object to Apple’s new fees – and there’s only one solution

• Comparing Apple’s latest App Store changes in the EU to Google’s Play Store guidelines