3 ms·
It's not totally clear and we're in uncharted territory as Apple has never tried to collect commissions on payments that were not made with IAP. However, it is
by nodamage 5y ago
It's not totally clear and we're in uncharted territory as Apple has never tried to collect commissions on payments that were not made with IAP. However, it is worth noting that the actual text of the developer agreement (quoted on page 32 of the ruling) says the following:
"For sales of Licensed Applications to End-Users located in those countries listed in Exhibit B, Section 1 of this Schedule 2 as updated from time to time via the App Store Connect site, Apple shall be entitled to a commission equal to thirty percent (30%) of all prices payable by each End-User."
Note that it just says "all prices payable by each End-User", there is no distinction in the contract between purchases made internally in the app and payments made externally via a website.
To the extent that the court has found that this contract is indeed enforceable (minus the anti-steering provision), that would suggest to me that taking you outside of the app to pay via a website might not make a difference to the commission owed. But I suspect this is the kind of thing that very expensive lawyers are going to have to litigate before we get a definitive answer.
- Aeolun 5y agoThat doesn’t really make sense though. Someone that’s had Netflix for years but now downloads the mobile app is not suddenly giving 30% of their subscription fee to Apple.
- nodamage 5y agoIn that specific case there was already an exception for "reader apps" where the user was already subscribed elsewhere and is merely using the app to access content they've previously purchased. Where I suspect this would apply is apps like Fortnite, where if you were previously selling V-bucks directly via IAP, then popping up a web view to process the payment and returning you to the app to claim your V-bucks might not actually be the loophole people seem to think it is.
- Aeolun 5y agoIt is if you can tell people they can use v-bucks purchased on a browser. As far as I read it you can even link to it, but maybe you can’t link directly to your payment page? Just like ‘you can also buy v-bucks on our [link](website)?