{"id":35898,"date":"2022-05-17T15:18:07","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T19:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=35898"},"modified":"2022-05-19T16:37:24","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T20:37:24","slug":"opt-out-app-store-subscription-increases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/17\/opt-out-app-store-subscription-increases\/","title":{"rendered":"Opt-Out App Store Subscription Increases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple<\/a> (via Mark Gurman<\/a>, MacRumors<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Currently, when an auto-renewable subscription price is increased, subscribers must opt in before the price increase is applied. The subscription doesn’t renew at the next billing period for subscribers who didn’t opt in to the new price. This has led to some services being unintentionally interrupted for users and they must take steps to resubscribe within the app, from Settings on iPhone and iPad, or in the App Store on Mac.<\/p>\n

With this update, under certain specific conditions and with advance user notice, developers may also offer an auto-renewable subscription price increase, without the user needing to take action and without interrupting the service. The specific conditions for this feature are that the price increase doesn’t occur more than once per year, doesn’t exceed US$5 and 50% of the subscription price, or US$50 and 50% for an annual subscription price, and is permissible by local law. In these situations, Apple always notifies users of an increase in advance, including via email, push notification, and a message within the app.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Mitchell Clark<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Reading that literally, it means that both<\/em> conditions would have to be true to require an opt-in. But the example scenario seems so ridiculous that it’s hard to believe that’s what Apple intends.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

It’s worth noting that you could easily turn Apple’s logic on its head: if users were missing those renewal opt-in notices, wouldn’t they also miss these new price change warnings? But it does sound like they’ll be relatively in your face.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

There is an easy fix to this: let users pick <\/em>whether or not they want the auto-renewing price increases instead of deciding for them. In my mind, that’d just be a toggle in the App Store settings that says something like “Always ask for opt-in if price increases,” and turning it on would make it like this change never happened.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n