Apps cannot include buttons, links, or messages that tell customers they can buy the same thing cheaper somewhere else — all digital purchase prompts must go through Apple's own payment system.
This rule directly limits consumer price transparency and choice by preventing developers from communicating that lower prices are available on the developer's own website or other platforms.
Consumers cannot be told within an iOS app that they could pay less for a subscription or digital content by purchasing directly from the developer's website, potentially costing them more money than necessary.
How other platforms handle this
EXCEPT FOR THE EXPRESS REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES STATED IN THIS SECTION 5, THE PARTIES MAKE NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED (EITHER IN FACT OR BY OPERATION OF LAW), OR STATUTORY, AS TO ANY MATTER WHATSOEVER RELATING TO THIS AGREEMENT. FIGMA EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS...
These Terms are between you and Spotify USA Inc., 4 World Trade Center, 150 Greenwich Street, 62nd Floor, New York, NY, 10007... Spotify has no liability to you, nor any obligation to provide a refund to you, in connection with internet or other Spotify Service outages or failures that are caused by...
GitHub provides the Website and the Service "as is" and "as available," without warranty of any kind. Without limiting this, we expressly disclaim all warranties, whether express, implied or statutory, regarding the Website and the Service including without limitation any warranty of merchantability...
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REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This provision is the subject of a permanent injunction in Epic Games v. Apple (N.D. Cal., Case No. 4:20-cv-05640-YGR) which held that Apple's anti-steering provisions violated California's Unfair Competition Law (Bus. & Prof. Code §17200) and required Apple to allow developers to include external purchase links. The injunction is subject to ongoing compliance/contempt proceedings. The provision also engages EU DMA Art. 5(7) which prohibits anti-steering in the EU, enforceable by the European Commission.
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Watch AppleThis rule directly limits consumer price transparency and choice by preventing developers from communicating that lower prices are available on the developer's own website or other platforms.
Consumers cannot be told within an iOS app that they could pay less for a subscription or digital content by purchasing directly from the developer's website, potentially costing them more money than necessary.
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