More deterrence: App Store warns of apps with “external purchases”

Care, “external purchases”: With a striking warning message, Apple now identifies apps in its App Store that offer users in the EU a direct payment option for digital content – instead of integrating Apple’s payment system. “This app does not support the private and secure payment system of the App Store,” is the noticeable text, which is accompanied by a red warning triangle with a red exclamation mark. Instead of “in-app purchases”, there is “external purchases” in addition to the shop button-even if the purchases are sometimes still possible in the app.

External purchases: warnings, Apple commission

Developers drew attention to the prominent note on Thursday. He sees that for the first time wrote an app developer on X. So far, only extremely few apps have used the new option to offer their own purchase options. Apple must now allow such direct purchases in the EU to the Gatekeeper service in the app store, which is classified as a gatekeeper service. The warning only appears when selling digital content. Shopping or booking apps, in which users can also enter their payment data directly for years, are not identified in this way.

Apple designs such direct sales highly unattractive for app providers: In addition to the warnings in the App Store, there is also a full screen warning in the app that users must first confirm before each purchase process. Providers or developers are also obliged to continue to pay commission to Apple for the subsequent purchases of their customers-even if these purchases are made from other hardware on the web, for example with a Windows PC in the browser. This applies to all purchases that pass within 12 months of installing an app or an app update.

In addition, developers of popular apps have to pay the “Core Technology Fee” of 50 cents per download and year (from 1 million downloads each) to Apple. The EU Commission has already classified these conditions as a violation of the Digital Markets Act. Apple’s requirements are neither “strict nor appropriate,” said the regulators. The group can now change that, otherwise there are further fines.

Apple designers formulated “Scary” texts

In the United States, Apple was recently forced to allow apps to allow external purchase options without being able to estimate a commission. Large app providers such as Amazon and Spotify are already using it.

According to the court documents, Apple employees exceeded that particularly terrifying (“scary”) warning messages (“Scare Sheets”) formulate so that users do not make external purchases in apps if possible. Apple boss Tim Cook was personally involved in the formulations, it is said. A designer of the group argued in a hearing in court that “Scary” does not mean “scary”, but is a technical language to inform users about something. This statement is “not credible” and contradicts “common sense and the entirety of the approved evidence”, the responsible judge noted in her decision.