Apple Allows Facebook To Use Facebook Pay On iOS For A Limited Time

CNBC reported today that Facebook has criticized Apple for not encouraging the development of small businesses as the latter prevented them...

CNBC reported today that Facebook has criticized Apple for not encouraging the development of small businesses as the latter prevented them from using Facebook's paid activity platform to expand their business to online activities. Facebook has promised zero interest rate processing on this service to help small businesses, but Apple still intends to charge them a 30% App Store tax.

Apple has been under great pressure in several ways. Today Facebook announced that Apple will allow Facebook to use its Facebook Pay service on iOS for a limited time:

"This is a difficult time for small businesses and creators, which is why we are not collecting any fees from paid online events while communities remain closed for the pandemic," Facebook spokesperson Joe Osborne said in a statement. "Apple has agreed to provide a brief, three-month respite after which struggling businesses will have to, yet again, pay Apple the full 30% App Store tax."

However, this regulation does not apply to online games on the Facebook platform. Vivek Sharma, vice president of Facebook games, said: “Apple’s decision to not collect its 30 percent tax on paid online events comes with a catch: gaming creators are excluded from using Facebook Pay in paid online events on iOS. We, unfortunately, had to make this concession to get the temporary reprieve for other businesses.”

Currently, Apple has been pressured by companies such as Microsoft and Google for not approving cloud gaming apps, and is in a lawsuit with Epic Games, while Apple is also facing increasing scrutiny by antitrust regulators.