Apple will now allow apps to charge more without asking your permission first
Apple will now allow subscription services to increase the price without having to explicitly agree to the increase. He writes the edgewhich refers to a Update in Apple App Store Rules which was published on Monday.
In the past, App Store subscriptions worked so that price increases resulted in a customer having to go in and agree to the increase. If not, the subscription was canceled before the next billing period.
“This resulted in users inadvertently canceling some services, and they had to take steps to re-subscribe in the app, from Settings on their iPhone or iPad or in the App Store on their Mac,” Apple wrote.
The update comes with some limitations. For a subscription that is billed on a weekly or monthly basis, the increase can be no more than five dollars (about 50 kroner) per week / month, and 50 dollars for annual subscriptions.
Also, the increase cannot exceed fifty percent, and the price cannot be increased more than once a year without the customer having to agree to the increase as before. The new policy also does not apply in countries where it is not permitted by law.
In other words: if you pay 100 kroner per month for a subscription billed through the App Store, the service can increase the price to 150 kroner without having to enter and agree. If the price is NOK 200 per month and the developer increases to NOK 280, you will still need to agree, because the increase is more than five dollars.
Apple also confirms that it will always inform customers of a price increase in advance, whether via email, a push notification, or a separate message in the relevant app. They also write that they will make sure to inform users how to opt out if they wish.
The Apple change also means that Apple will differ from the competing Google Play Store, since they previously had a somewhat identical policy. in google Developer Guidelines It states that they have seven days to notify the user of a price change before Google can do it on their behalf.
Existing subscribers have at least 30 days to consider a price increase and decide if they want to accept it. If they don’t accept the price increase, the subscription will be automatically canceled before they pay the higher price, Google writes.
Signs of a change in the road were seen at Apple earlier this year. Developer Max Seelemann posted a warning about a price increase on Disney+ on Twitter, where the default option is “OK”.
To say no to the price increase, he had to go into practice and manually cancel the subscription.
In Apple’s defense, this practice isn’t much different from the one we know from services like Netflix and Spotify. These like to make price adjustments at fairly regular intervals, and practice the same “quiet admission” that’s now standard on the App Store.
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