South Korea Investigates App Store
In a statement (via Reuters), the Korea Communications Commissions (KCC) said that it conducted an inspection of Apple, Google, and One Store since May 17 to determine if they have violated in-app payment laws, and concluded that all three companies may have done so. Such contraventions could include unfairly delaying the review of mobile content, or refusing, delaying, restricting, deleting, or blocking the registration, renewal, or inspection of mobile content that uses third-party payment methods.
Previously:
Update (2022-08-10): Florian Mueller:
I predicted this after Google rejected updates to KakaoTalk (commonly referred to as KaTalk), a messenger app used by about 93% of Korean smartphone users, the reason for those rejections being KaTalk’s use of external payment methods (via its website).
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The Yonhap report doesn’t specifically indicate that the KCC may consider the 26% app tax rate a violation of the country’s IAP rules. Maybe the KCC is going to focus on behavioral rather than numerical issues, at least for now--they’ve got to start someplace.
