Apple has announced some changes in its App Store – the app store for iPhone and iPad – that could allow app developers to partially avoid paying the 15 to 30 percent company-imposed fees on all transactions. . The announcement, which expands and specifies some concessions already made in June, is the result of a judicial agreement with a group of developers who in the United States had filed a class action against Apple for its practices on the App Store, but will concern all platform developers.
In practice, Apple will allow developers to advertise through some communication channels external to their apps, such as email, payment methods for purchases in apps that are alternative to those that go through Apple, and which are subject to the company's commissions. This possibility, until now, was prohibited by the rules of the App Store. In any case, the developers will continue not to be able to propose alternative payment methods within the app, under penalty of exclusion from the App Store.
The agreement also increases the flexibility of pricing applicable by developers and provides for the establishment of a US developer support fund.
If this agreement found with the developers is approved by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the class action will be closed. The judge is also considering another important trial, which concerns the Apple App Store, brought by Epic Games, the producer of the famous video game Fortnite, which has accused Apple of having established a monopoly. The hearings of this trial were held in recent months, the sentence could arrive by the end of the year.
– Read also: The antitrust trial against Apple, explained
