Apple using sketchy warning for apps bought using third-party payment systems

After the EU required Apple to allow iPhone developers to bypass the App Store’s payment system, the company has now resorted to scare tactics to fight back.

Apple has added a prominent warning on these apps. This appears to violate the company’s own app guidelines, as well as likely breaking EU antitrust law …

Developer Viktor Maric tweeted a screengrab, using the example of one of the most popular business apps in Hungary, Instacar.

First time seeing this. Apple will punish the apps with external payment system.

Mac developer Michael Tsai notes that Apple supports three levels of alert messages in apps, and has specific guidance about when to use each.

• Informational (app icon): “to be used to inform the user about a current or impending event”
• Warning (app icon): “to be used to warn the user about a current or impending event[…] when the alert’s content is more severe than [informational]”
• Critical (orange ! triangle icon): “Use a caution symbol sparingly. Using a caution symbol like exclamationmark.triangle too frequently in your alerts diminishes its significance. Use the symbol only when extra attention is really needed, as when confirming an action that might result in unexpected loss of data.”

Apple is using the critical alert, which the company says is only for the most serious of situations, like being at risk of data loss. It’s hard to see how using a perfectly safe third-party payment processor like Stripe or PayPal would qualify.

The move also appears to violate the Digital Markets Act, the legislation that required Apple to permit third-party payment options in the first place. The DMA does not allow the use scare screens to dissuade people from using external payment options, as this would qualify as an illegal anti-steering measure.

John Gruber called out Apple for spreading FUD, though ascribes it to ignorance rather than malice.

The uncompetitive nature of the App Store — I’m using uncompetitive rather than anticompetitive just to give Apple the benefit of the doubt here — has left at least some top Apple executives hopelessly naive about the state of online payments […]

Apple’s IAP system has numerous advantages and user-centric features [but] the fact that it’s “private and secure” is no longer distinguishing at all.

9to5Mac’s Take

I won’t repeat remarks I’ve made countless times before about the stupidity of getting embroiled in pointless and endless wars with regulators.

If Apple simply highlighted the key benefits of buying through the App Store – being able to manage all your purchases and subscriptions in one place, and Apple having your back in the case of disputes – most people would freely choose to use it. Compete, don’t try to stop competition.

Image: 9to5Mac composite of Maric’s tweet and photo by Tommy Pascale on Unsplash