Concerns Over Passage of 'Google In-App Payment Prevention Law'... Apple Says "Reduced Opportunities for Korean Developers"

Partial Amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act
Only National Assembly Judiciary Committee Plenary Session Approval Remains
Passed Plenary Session Early Morning
Apple Expresses Regret Following Google

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Minyoung Cha] Apple has officially expressed regret following Google as the partial amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act, commonly known as the 'Google In-App Payment Prevention Act,' awaits only the plenary session approval of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee.

On the 25th, Apple stated in a headquarters press release, "This amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act exposes users who purchase digital goods through channels other than the App Store to risks of fraud and weakens personal information protection functions," adding, "It not only makes it difficult for customers to manage their purchases but also diminishes the effectiveness of customer protection measures within the App Store, such as purchase requests and harmful content blocking."

Apple continued, "If the amendment passes the National Assembly and takes effect as is, we believe user trust in App Store purchases will decline," noting, "More than 482,000 developers registered in Korea have generated over 8.55 trillion KRW in revenue together with Apple so far, and this means their opportunities to achieve better earnings will decrease."

Earlier, Google also pointed out that Korea is hastily introducing the bill without reviewing user protection. The reason is that if individual vendors build their own payment systems, it becomes difficult for app market operators to manage and respond to issues such as refunds, fraud damage, and unused approvals. Google is also burdened by the expectation that if the antitrust bill on in-app payments passes and is enforced in Korea, other countries will follow with laws banning mandatory in-app payments. The Korea branch of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), which includes Google and Apple, criticized, saying, "The National Assembly and government are fundamentally infringing on private companies' 'freedom of business' guaranteed by the constitution."

However, the possibility of accepting these claims from big tech companies is limited. In the United States, the Senate has already introduced the 'Open App Market Act,' which prohibits mandatory in-app payments in app markets. Previously, 36 states including Utah and New York, as well as Washington D.C., filed antitrust lawsuits against Google. Additionally, last month, the Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) and Match Group sent a letter to Democratic Party lawmaker Seungrae Cho of the Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee opposing Google's mandatory in-app payment policy, requesting international solidarity.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee planned to hold a plenary session in the afternoon to approve the amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act but postponed the schedule due to opposition from People Power Party lawmakers, citing non-compliance with the National Assembly Act. The amendment had passed the full committee of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee just before dawn that day, and rushing the bill's processing within less than a day was criticized as violating the National Assembly Act.

The amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act aims to prevent Google's unilateral changes to its commission policy. It regulates ▲ abusing bargaining position to force specific payment methods ▲ unjustifiably delaying the review of mobile content, and ▲ unjustifiably deleting mobile content. The Legislation and Judiciary Committee deleted items 10 and 13 of Article 50, Paragraph 1, which had caused overlapping regulation controversies with the Fair Trade Commission. These items pertained to acts where app market operators unjustly coerce or induce mobile content providers not to register their content on other app markets and impose discriminatory conditions or restrictions unfairly on mobile content providers.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.