Apple Not Doing Enough to Comply With South Korea's New App Store Law

Apple and Google are not doing enough to comply with South Korea's new app store law, according to the lawmaker that spearheaded the legislation. The law prevents app store operators from forcing developers to use their own payment systems.

South Korea will make public initial details of what is necessary to comply with the law tomorrow, reports Reuters. Apple claims to already be in compliance with the law and Google has announced that it will reduce its commission rate by just 4% for developers using their own payment system.

"Frankly, we are not satisfied... Apple's claim that it's already complying is nonsensical," lawmaker Jo Seoung-lae said. "Excessive fees take away developers' chances for innovation ... parliament is to be closely informed as the government drafts detailed regulations to make sure there is accountability."


Korea Communications Commission Vice Chairman Kim Hyun says 'finely woven' regulatory details will be reported to a parliamentary committee on Wednesday and put into practice by March 2022. It's unclear what the penalty will be for breaching these rules; however, an early draft of the enforcement ordinance indicated that companies could be fined up to "2% of revenue".

More details in the full report linked below...

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