Big changes are coming to the internal infrastructure of Apple’s App Store
The App Store is facing one of the biggest changes in its history. The European Union has decided that Apple must allow access to third-party app stores and, in addition, the Californian firm must modify the regulations that prevent developers from redirecting users to other payment services.
In other words, Apple will not be able to prevent developers from offering alternative payment methods to avoid App Store commissions. More bad news for the company, which plans to divide the App Store in two to comply with European Commission regulations.
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) comes into force in 2023 and Apple will have until March 5 to support alternative app stores or the “Side loading”.
Apple will allow alternative payment options in its App Store
The legal battle between Apple and Epic Games favored the company led by Tim Cook in the majority of sentences. Except that the judge ruled that Apple should relax its App Store policy to allow developers to add links in their apps to redirect users to other payment methods outside of the Apple Store.
The decision has not been established until now because Apple had appealed to the Supreme Court. Today, the Supreme Court rejected Apple’s appeal, as Bloomberg reports, implying that Apple will have to produce and authorize external links to other payment methods in the App Store.
The Apple App Store receives between 15% and 30% commission revenues received by application developers. With this measure, many development companies will ignore payments to Apple to increase their economic benefits.
But the Digital Markets Act will also force Apple to take other measures. As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, Apple will also have to allow access to third-party app stores. It is therefore also possible that many applications present today in the App Store will disappear in the future to become part of another store… or, perhaps, of another divided section of the App Store.
Big changes are coming to the Apple App Store. And this could involve a serious security breach for iPhone and iPad users. Hopefully Apple will find the most suitable solution for all its users.
