South Korea’s parliament on Tuesday approved a bill that bans major operators such as the Apple App Store and Google’s derivative Play store from forcing software developers to use their payment systems, effectively stopping them from charging commissions on in-app purchases.
It is the first such curb by a major economy on the likes of Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google, which face global criticism for requiring the use of proprietary payment systems that charge commissions of up to 30%.
The final vote was 180 in favour out of 188 attending to pass the amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act…
“We believe user trust in App Store purchases will decrease as a result of this proposal – leading to fewer opportunities for the over 482,000 registered developers in Korea who have earned more than KRW8.55 trillion to date with Apple,” Apple said in a statement.
“We’ll reflect on how to comply with this law while maintaining a model that supports a high-quality operating system and app store, and we will share more in the coming weeks,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters.
MacDailyNews Take: The Republic of Samsung passes a law that penalizes law-abiding companies – every store charges commissions – that benefit Samsung.
Par for the corrupt South Korean course.