South Korea fines Apple and Google a combined $47.6 million after a multi-year investigation found both companies broke the country’s app store rules. The Korea Media and Communications Commission (KMCC) says Google must pay roughly $32 million and Apple about $15.6 million, and both companies now have to change how their app stores operate in the country.
What the investigation found
The KMCC says it has been running fact-finding investigations and on-site inspections of Apple and Google since 2022. Investigators concluded that both companies violated South Korea’s Telecommunications Business Act by forcing developers to use their own in-app payment systems, charging a 26 percent commission on third-party payments, and blocking external payment options outright.
Regulators also found that app reviews were being delayed without a clear explanation, and that neither company responded properly to developers who asked why their apps were stuck in review. On top of that, the KMCC says Apple calculated its commission differently depending on where a developer was based: South Korean developers were charged based on the purchase price including VAT, while developers outside the country were charged based on the pre-VAT price. That’s a meaningful difference in how much of a sale each business actually keeps, depending solely on location.
What Apple and Google now have to do
Beyond the fines, the KMCC is ordering both companies to accept external payment methods and revise their app review procedures so developers get clearer answers and fewer unexplained delays. Apple has an extra requirement: it must stop treating domestic and overseas developers differently when calculating commissions.
Notably, this isn’t unfamiliar territory for either company. Apple and Google already allow external payment options in the United States and the European Union, so South Korea’s order pushes them to extend practices they’ve already adopted elsewhere rather than invent something new.
Why this keeps happening
South Korea was actually the first country to pass a law specifically banning app store operators from requiring their own payment systems, back in 2021. This latest action shows the gap between passing that kind of law and getting both companies to fully comply with it took years of investigation to close. It also fits a broader pattern: regulators in multiple countries have been chipping away at how much control Apple and Google keep over their platforms, including the UK regulator pushing Apple to open up iPhone NFC access for competing payment and wallet apps.
What it means for developers and users
For app developers in South Korea, the ruling should translate into lower effective fees on sales processed outside Apple’s or Google’s own payment systems, plus (in theory) faster and more transparent app review. For everyday users, the direct effect is less visible, but it adds to a slow shift toward app stores being less of a walled garden.
The bottom line
These fines are relatively small for companies the size of Apple and Google, but the required changes matter more than the dollar amounts. If South Korea enforces the new rules on external payments, app review transparency, and equal treatment of developers, it becomes another real-world example that app store control isn’t absolute — and another data point other regulators may point to as they weigh similar action.
Source: Engadget
