Apple has just changed the guidelines in the App Store to respond to something called an anti-steering mandate from the European Commission. Here’s what’s changed.
April 11 update below. This post was first published on April 8, 2024.
When the European Union fined Apple $2 billion for anti-competitive conduct against other music services in March, it was because Apple refused to allow music streaming apps to feature links to websites where they could sign up outside the app. This was known as anti-steering.
It meant that Spotify, for example, couldn’t advertise that it was possible for users to sign up to its service on Spotify’s own website—something that Spotify, found appealing since it circumvented the requirement to pay commission to Apple that would have been charged had the sign-up happened within the app (though signing up on the App Store was a feature Spotify removed some time ago).
In the last few days, Apple has updated its App Store guidelines on the Apple’s website for developers to change how apps work—for now these changes and others introduced in the recent Digital Markets Act, only apply in the EU, but you can be sure that governments around the world are watching carefully to see if they want to match the new rules.
It’s noticeable that on the new guidelines, the second paragraph of the introduction is about the EU, a sign of how transformative the changes there are proving to be.
The guidelines now refer to this change: “Music streaming apps in specific regions can use Music Streaming Services Entitlements to include a link (which may take the form of a buy button) to the developer’s website that informs users of other ways to purchase digital music content or services.”
It’s not quite the same as signing up in the app, which would entail the commission Apple charges. Instead, “These entitlements also permit music streaming app developers to invite users to provide their email address for the express purpose of sending them a link to the developer’s website to purchase digital music content or services.”
There’s another change, as pointed out by 9to5Mac, and it applies worldwide. As the report notes, “For the first time, Apple is allowing developers to create and distribute game emulators on the App Store. The news was confirmed by Apple in an email sent to developers.”
This is a very big change. Game developers have long been trying to bring game emulators to iOS users. The report continues, “The App Store guidelines have never allowed emulator software, but some apps have had luck bypassing Apple’s review process by disguising their apps and hiding emulators within them. But that’s changing now with the App Store’s new guidelines.” App developers are responsible for the software in an emulator app, “including ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws,” Apple says.
April 11 update. The rumblings from the Digital Markets Act, the EU legislation that has sought to open up the iPhone and other brands’ products in the EU, and is directly related to the new mandates in the App Store, are continuing. As well as Apple updating its App Store guidelines, there’s now a new report which indicates how another element of the Act is going in terms of user responses.
This is the requirement for Apple to offer EU users a list of web browsers during setup, rather than defaulting to Safari, for instance. It turns out, in a new report from Reuters, highlighted by 9to5Mac, that the new arrangement has meant that more people are choosing browsers that are not Safari when asked.
It’s long been possible to choose another browser. For instance, if you download Chrome, and go to Chrome settings in the Settings app, you can manually choose Chrome as the default browser.
But what’s new is that at setup, Apple has to show a screen inviting you to choose your default browser and, so as to keep a level playing field, the list of browsers must be presented at random.
And the report says “Independent browser companies in the European Union are seeing a spike in users in the first month after EU legislation forced Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft and Apple to make it easier for users to switch to rivals, according to data provided to Reuters by six companies.”
One such browser is Aloha, which is based in Cyprus. It says users jumped 250% in March, and added, “Before, EU was our number four market, right now it’s number two,” according to the company’s CEO.
Similarly, Vivaldi, Ecosia and Brave have all reported rises in user numbers since the new regulation came into force. Many of these rises will have been on the iPhone.
