Apple News Violates the App Store Rules

Apple’s subscription page for News+ very clearly violates Apple’s guidelines

Spotify’s antitrust complaint against Apple hinges on the fact that Apple gives its own service, Apple Music, preferential treatment. If Apple does not allow fair competition on their platform, they’re using classic monopolistic behavior, the very same that lead to antitrust laws and the breakup of large railroad companies in this country.

Now there’s a blatant misuse of Apple’s power, and it harms customers. Apple has strict requirements for subscription sign up pages on iOS. The view must have a link to privacy policies and support pages detailing the conditions of the subscription. News+ has neither. Furthermore, developers need to make their monthly fees obvious on the signup page, so customers don’t get into a subscription they can’t afford. Again, News+ does not do this. The price is listed in the fine print.

If Apple News+ was made by a third party developer, Apple would reject it for breaking these important rules. Apple’s own features get preference over the competition.

Apple’s Rule Breaking, Explained

A fake app demonstrating the subscription sign up rules, from Apple

Take a look at the fake app above. There’s a link to terms of service, the privacy policy, fine print about subscription services, and the prices for the subscription levels are clearly listed on the buttons. This ensures that a customer knows what they’re getting into with their subscription. If a developer does not have their subscription pages exactly like this, they’re in violation of Apple’s App Store guidelines.

Every single example Apple provides looks like this. That’s because their rules are very clear. In order to be accepted into the App Store, the app must:

1. Clearly show the “subscription name, duration, and the content or services provided during each subscription period.”
2. Display how the service will charge customers
3. Inform the user that subscriptions renew automatically
4. That the user can cancel subscriptions in the App Store
5. A large and clearly displayed billing amount
6. There must be a link to restore purchases
7. A link to your privacy policy

If an app lacks even one of these items, Apple would deny it entry to the App Store. However, the News+ subscription flow:

1. Does not show the duration period clearly
2. Has no information on canceling in the App Store
3. Hides the price
4. Has no link or button for restoring purchases
5. Does not have a link to the privacy policy

Apple’s app violates most of their own rules. If this was a third party app, Apple would deny it entry to the App Store based on the grounds of predatory behavior.

Instead, they’re promoting it, breaking other App Store guidelines on promotion through push notifications.

Double Standards

If a third party app developer had released a service like News+, they’d have to fit all of this criteria. While the level of effort for development and design wouldn’t be extremely high, it would increase the difficulty of designing these screens. It would also make them less aesthetically pleasing, which is exactly why Apple skipped these features.

Apple’s giving preferential treatment to their own features. This is anti-competitive behavior. It’s exactly why we have antitrust laws. It lends credibility to Spotify’s lawsuit, and opens Apple up to lawsuits from any other news companies with apps and subscriptions on the App Store. This could include The New York Times, Washington Post, Medium, Pocket, Flipboard, and many others.

All Apple had to do was follow their own App Store guidelines to avoid this issue, and they couldn’t even do that. That’s not even the only way News+ comes off as half baked.

Sources:

• Killian Bell, Cult of Mac
• Sean Hollister, The Verge