Apple Adds More Protections and Regulations to EU App Developers

All Apple app developers in the European Union now have more rights to protect themselves and their own apps after the new regulations were passed in this week. This includes a minimum 1-month notice to Apple for removing an app from the App Store with a few exceptions for apps that are not following specific App Store guidelines or with breached/exploited code, transparency of how lists of popular apps are generated, mandatory disclaimers from app developers and companies of preferential access given to specific developers and contributors and access to third-party mediation if developers have disputes over the factors that their apps can not be approved by Apple.

These new guidelines were reported from European developer news outlets MCV/Develop and GamesIndustry.biz, which states that the guidelines allow developers to only allow Apple to remove their apps in a fair manner with the exception of illicit or inappropriate content, safety concerns, counterfeiting or fraudulent cases, malware, data breaches and spam. These other guidelines above are also put in place as Apple faced scrutiny of the European App Store for multiple cases.

Apple faced the concern of antitrust cases against Apple Pay and in-app purchases last month as several developers running paid, subscription-based or in-app purchases in their apps never allow users to purchase subscription services, extra features and in-app currency in their apps. This misled users to end up paying through the app developers’ websites or through an e-commerce website to get the paid features or the subscription, which can also be vulnerable to hackers instead of the app.

The Cupertino company also has been under fire for not repudiating the Hey subscription-based email service app in June, which the developers are not willing to add in-app purchases for the $99 subscription email account service. The company also did not want to pay Apple 15-30% of their fees and they wanted the app to be considered a “reader” app, but their app can get taken down if they do not add in-app purchases for the subscription service.

All in all, Apple has added more ways to handle concerns of app approvals in the App Store since WWDC 2020 last month, enabling all app developers to challenge over whether the app is violating the App Store guidelines, including the policies themselves. Updates for bug fixes are also no longer delayed if the app is disobeying the guidelines, which allows developers to act as quickly as possible to address issues that users experience in the app.

(Image via Apple)