Problems at home for Apple, and problems abroad. South Korea has responded to Apple’s plans to allow alternative payment methods in the App Store. Those plans won’t cut it, in the nation’s estimation. This all goes back several months. According to a piece from Apple Insider:
In September, South Korea passed a law that would forbid app store operators, such as Apple and Google, from requiring developers to utilize first-party payment systems for in-app purchases.
Roll ahead to mid-January, and we find Apple seeming to say, “okay.” A piece from The Korea Herald had Apple saying:
We look forward to working with the [Korea Communications Commission] and our developer community on a solution that benefits our Korean users…
Apple did also indicate that it would still get paid. Indications were that it would “provide an alternative payment system at a reduced service charge as part of [its] compliance plans…”
Best laid though they may have been, gang aft a-gley they have, or… something. Apple Insider now says:
South Korean regulators want better, more detailed compliance plans from both Apple and Google over opening up their App Stores to outside payment methods.
Concerns expressed by regulators are that the tech titans might make using outside payment processors too difficult, and that the reduced service charge might not be reduced enough. The piece quotes one Korean Communications Commission official as saying:
As a result of any policy, if app developers find it realistically difficult to use an alternative payment system and resort to using the dominant app store operator's payment system, it would not fit the law's purpose.
I will say, I do think that Apple and Google get a bit squirrelly around this stuff sometimes. It’s kind of hard to blame them in this case, though. While South Korea seems to want more definitive plans from the two companies, Apple Insider says:
The specific rules of [the] new law, an amendment to South Korea's Telecommunication Business Act, are to be drawn up by March 15.
“Comply with our rules!”
“What rules?”
“We’ll get to that!”
The world is funny/not funny.
