Maya Robertson
Apple today announced that apps distributed on the App Store solely in South Korea can now use the StoreKit External Purchase Entitlement to offer an alternative payment option. The company will charge 26% commission from apps using third-party payment systems on the price paid by the user.
Last year in August, South Korea’s parliament passed a bill which bars tech companies operating app stores in the country including Apple and Google from requiring developers to use their own payment systems that charge them up to 30%.
The Korean Communication Commission (KCC) said in January that Apple has submitted its compliance plans to let developers use third-party payment options in apps in South Korea.
To comply with the law, Apple said on Thursday that developers can now use the StoreKit External Purchase Entitlement which lets apps distributed on the App Store solely in South Korea to provide a third-party processing option.
Those who want to use a third-party payment option will need to enable the StoreKit External Purchase Entitlement in Xcode, use required StoreKit APIs, and submit a separate app binary for iOS and/or iPadOS that is distributed solely on the App Store in South Korea.
“Apple will review this South Korea-specific app to ensure it complies with the terms and conditions of the entitlement, as well as the App Store Review Guidelines and the Apple Developer Program License Agreement,” Apple said in a page.
Apple says developers who are interested in using the entitlement for apps in South Korea need to submit an entitlement request form.
It’s not the first time that Apple has come up with a solution like this to end a dispute over not allowing third-party payment options in apps. A few weeks ago, the Dutch Consumer and Markets Authority (ACM) announced that Apple would allow dating apps to offer alternate in-app payment options on the Netherlands App Store, ending a dispute that has resulted in the company being fined €50 million.
The ACM said, with this concession, Apple will meet the requirements that Dutch watchdog set under European and Dutch competition rules.
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