20. January 2022

This article has been indexed from MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors – Front Page

Illinois is the latest state to attempt to pass legislation that would prevent developers from being required to use Apple’s in-app purchase options by allowing for alternate payment solutions within apps.

As outlined by Arizona news site WGEM, under the Freedom to Describe Directly Act, distribution platforms like the App Store and Google Play would not be able to force Illinois developers to use a “particular in-application payment system” as the exclusive mode for accepting payments, nor would they be able to retaliate against developers who opt to use an alternate payment option.

Illinois-based Basecamp CEO David Heinemeier-Hansson, who in 2020 was involved in a public dispute with Apple over email app “Hey,” is one of the supporters of the new bill. When launched, the Hey app did not work without a subscription, but did not include an option to purchase a subscription in the app and instead opened straight to a login screen.

Apple did not believe that an app opening to a login was an ideal user experience and threatened to remove Hey from the ‌App Store‌ if a subscription option wasn’t added. Hey ultimately got around the restriction by offering a free option that users could test when first installing the app.

Heinemeier-Hansson has since been championing various state bills that attempt to provide developers with non-App Store payment options, but none of these bills have succeeded. North Dakota, Arizona, and Minnesota have all </p>%0A</div>%0A<h2>Read%20the%20original%20article:%20<a%20href=" https: target="_blank" rel="noopener">Illinois Floats Bill That Would Let Developers Skirt Apple’s In-App Purchase Rules