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If there is to be a warning it should be of the same scale that warns you of in-app purchases. That warning there is total overkill.

Then Apple has done its due diligence, and if someone is scammed then Apple has no liability.

Honestly I think there should be a big visible warning for apps allowing external purchases, consumers should be warned that the payments are outside of Apples control beforehand so they can make the decision of wether or not they want to take the risk that is involved.
 
Freeload? Isn't it Apple's own rules that force developers to put their apps in Apple's App Store? You clearly aren't a supporter of a competitive marketplace. You get a choice where you buy your groceries -- would you shop at a store whose prices are 30% higher because their checkout system is "more secure" than others, especially when the others are already secure?
I am a supporter of competitive marketplaces. I’m not a supporter of governments interfering in marketplaces. Apple isn’t the only company that makes a phone. They have under 30% market share in the EU. If consumers don’t like it there are other phones to buy and if developers don’t like it there are other options to develop for.

Again, consumers are used to the App Store working one way. The government has decided they know better, so Apple should be able to inform its customers that certain apps aren’t going to behave as expected.
 
Wow.

Just wow.

In the same few weeks they get slapped hard by US lawmakers for aggressive tactics against developers and punished even further they go and repeat the exact same mistake in the much-harsher EU. How tone deaf can you be?!
 
On top of that, if an app like Spotify was such a security risk from a payment perspective, why wouldn’t Apple have already blocked the app from being allowed in the App Store?

People have already been making external payments on these apps for years, now Apple all of a sudden puts a big warning on the app acting like it’s going to steal your identity? If it was such a risk, Apple should have removed apps like Spotify years ago from the App Store.

The only difference now is that they are allowed to use links in the app. Before they couldn’t. Now all of a sudden it’s not secure because they have a link in the app, taking to the same place you managed the service for years.

This is cringe coming from a multi-TRILLION dollar company. Doing everything they can to make sure they Hoover up every penny they can.


The difference is that subscriptions for Well known trusted services are not IAP for a random app. It's part of the review process that Apple carry out. Audible for example. You cannot sign up or buy though Appstore. You can however log in and view. The same is the case the other way around with Apple TV on the Fire stick. You can view stuff but you cannot buy.

You pay outside and log in. You can subscribe for Spotify and other apps from within the appstoreiff you want.

IAP has always been inherently secure. You know what you are buying and you have a come back to apple to cancel or refund. External payments are obviously not as secure. A nefarious app can get the app approved by apple and then change the external process and price bump, keep all your details etc.

And if and when that happens the public will look to apple to refund it. That is the reason for the Hazard symbol.
 
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Be very careful out there.

Screenshot 2025-05-15 at 15.00.53.png
 
For knowing before I buy an app that the app may use insecure methods to handle payments? COMEDY.
What's even funnier is these people who think this is "anti-consumer" apparently never buy anything in their life outside Apple's payment system because everything in life involves sticking your CC into some random machine, handing it to a waitperson in a restaurant who walks off with it, or buy things online using that stores payment system. But somehow, buying in-app purchases are wrought for fraud by using, presumably, the same payment systems you're already using! COMEDY for sure! 😂
 
The difference is that subscriptions for Well know trusted services are not IAP for a random app. It's part of the review process that Apple carry out. Audible for example. You cannot sign up or buy though Appstore. You can however log in and view. The same is the case the other way around with Apple TV on the Fire stick. You can view stuff but you cannot buy.

You pay outside and log in. You can subscribe for Spotify and other apps from within the appstoreiff you want.

IAP has always been inherently secure. You know what you are buying and you have a come back to apple to cancel or refund. External payments are obviously not as secure. A nefarious app can get the app approved by apple and then change the external process and price bump, keep all your details etc.

And if and when that happens the public will look to apple to refund it. That is the reason for the Hazard symbol.

With that logic, you shouldn’t be allowed to order tickets from Ticketmaster via their App either. Who’s to say, their payment integration is „secure“.

Don’t even get me started with the waiters at a restaurant in the US storming off with your credit card!
 
The App Store has only worked one way for 20 years, and customers are used to that. Customers lose a lot of features when apps don’t go through the App Store’s payment processing, and should be aware.
"a lot of features" - that's ********. The only real feature they actually lose is to buy with their AppleID - congrats.
Consumers should absolutely be informed. Most consumers are not up to date on what’s going on like MacRumors readers. They think “it’s in the App Store so Apple has my back”.
Yes, they should. But not in that way which could (will) cause scare. The red exclamation mark is unnecessary and causes more harm that it helps.
 
I am a supporter of competitive marketplaces. I’m not a supporter of governments interfering in marketplaces. Apple isn’t the only company that makes a phone. They have under 30% market share in the EU. If consumers don’t like it there are other phones to buy and if developers don’t like it there are other options to develop for.

Again, consumers are used to the App Store working one way. The government has decided they know better, so Apple should be able to inform its customers that certain apps aren’t going to behave as expected.
Read up on the AT&T antitrust case from the 1980s. They once had a monopoly on both the phone network and the hardware you could plug into it, at the time a proprietary rotary phone.

The courts made them sell off and subsequently open up the hardware market to competition. We got push buttons, answering machines and cordless models fairly quickly afterwards. Consumers won and did little to complain!

Mass centralisation via one corporation might start off well intentioned but it eventually leads to stagnation through a lack of competition. If Apple want developers to continue to use their internal systems then they need to be more competitive, not punitive.

Maybe I could go to Android but I can't access any of my iBook purchases, iCloud backups, Podcast curation, Pages documents, Notes, Software Licences or Reminders nor manage my kids parental controls. I'm not complaining as I like the iPhone, but to say its easy to just move across shows a willfull ignorance of platform lock-in (in both directions)
 
While I support this, I strongly suspect the EU is not going to be happy.

If apps get to freeload on the trust and infrastructure of the App Store without compensating Apple then Apple should be able to warn consumers that is the case.
The trust and infrastructure of the app store is funded entirely by the $100/year developer fee. Free apps supported by ads have been there since day 1 and always paid Apple 0% of their income.

Apple's 30% sales commission is 100% a gravy train.
 
The difference is that subscriptions for Well know trusted services are not IAP for a random app. It's part of the review process that Apple carry out. Audible for example. You cannot sign up or buy though Appstore. You can however log in and view. The same is the case the other way around with Apple TV on the Fire stick. You can view stuff but you cannot buy.

You pay outside and log in. You can subscribe for Spotify and other apps from within the appstoreiff you want.
Well I am confused. I downloaded the Taco Bell app and I gave my credit card to Taco Bell directly and they charged me for a Crunchwrap Supreme.

None of that used Apple’s money system to protect me.

And I did it all in an App I downloaded from Apple’s App Store.

Where was my big !! warning that I might be making a critical mistake?

Do Americans not deserve the same protection as Europeans? If this is simply about safety why have I not been warned about this hazardous situation?

After all, I got this app FROM Apple’s walled garden and now it’s letting me send my personal banking info out to some other company. Do they just not care about me?
 

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The trust and infrastructure of the app store is funded entirely by the $100/year developer fee. Free apps supported by ads have been there since day 1 and always paid Apple 0% of their income.

Apple's 30% sales commission is 100% a gravy train.
It is absolutely not “funded entirely by the $100/year developer fee”. The $100 fee was set with the idea that paid apps subsidize the free ones.

Major apps probably cost Apple hundreds of thousands of dollars a year per app in bandwidth cost alone.
 
Luckily my point is that this Apple change is pro-consumer.
Choice is pro-consumer. Epic to their credit have two payment options in Fortnite: 1 that links to the Epic Store at a lower price and one that uses the Apple system at a higher price. Buyers can vote with their wallets.

Apple's change is anti-developer and without those developers it has no platform.
 
I am a supporter of competitive marketplaces. I’m not a supporter of governments interfering in marketplaces. Apple isn’t the only company that makes a phone. They have under 30% market share in the EU. If consumers don’t like it there are other phones to buy and if developers don’t like it there are other options to develop for.

Again, consumers are used to the App Store working one way. The government has decided they know better, so Apple should be able to inform its customers that certain apps aren’t going to behave as expected.
Ahhh...the old if-you-don't-like-it-by another-phone excuse. Tiresome. The thing is, it's MY phone, and neither the app nor the item I'm buying in the app are Apple's. The only thing Apple wants is 30% of the cut for processing a CC payment. Seems ridiculous.
 
Ahhh...the old if-you-don't-like-it-by another-phone excuse. Tiresome. The thing is, it's MY phone, and neither the app nor the item I'm buying in the app are Apple's. The only thing Apple wants is 30% of the cut for processing a CC payment. Seems ridiculous.
It’s your phone, but not your OS or your App Store.
 
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