These are strange times for Apple when it comes to App Store guidelines. The controversy with Epic Games, developers of Fortnite, is being very popular, because of in-app purchases that do not go through the company’s servers, which would report a 30% commission. The latest related development has to do with WordPress, the popular website management application. Apple blocked updates a few days ago due to something similar that, luckily, has already been corrected.
Apple blocked the WordPress app from its developers
The axis of the controversy comes from the aforementioned 30% commission that Apple pocketed for all those payments made within iPhone, iPad and Mac applications that have been downloaded from the App Store. This is something that it shares with Google and its Android Play Store and those who try to divert those in-app payments to another system are warned first and in the worst case the application is removed from the store, which is what happened with Fortnite more than a week ago.
WordPress and its iOS application did not incorporate (nor do they intend) an in-app payment method of any kind, but Apple’s detection systems were not fine and the company kept updates to this app blocked for several days. The problem appeared in the help center of the app, which linked to a payment system that is actually done through the platform’s website and not from the application, so there was really no indication that WordPress was violating any type of noamrtiva imposed by Californians in their App Store.
The app was still available for download on iOS and iPadOS for those users who did not have it installed. In fact, it has always been fully functional, since the lock really only affected developers, who found it impossible to launch updates to the application until they solved those problems with in-app payments, which did not exist as we have previously highlighted.
Apple apologized for the ruling
According to reports from Appleinsider , the apple company corrected the problem as soon as they became aware of the failure of its review system, allowing WordPress developers to release updates. In fact, they claimed to know that the application is completely free and does not offer in-app purchases of any kind to create a conflict with the regulations. For this same reason they apologized for the confusion.
The problem of the App Store right now is now concentrated in the legal battle that Epic Games has started with Fortnite and which Microsoft has joined showing its support. In any case, it seems that this will go for a long time, since we remember that Apple is being investigated for this reason along with other large companies in the sector such as Google, Amazon and Facebook, which are also accused of carrying out monopolistic practices with their systems.