The U.S. government is prepared to ban Tiktok in the country if parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell up in the next nine months. Now, a new report reveals that Apple might beat everyone to the punch, following the revelation TikTok is actually breaking Apple’s notorious App Store commission rules.
According to screenshots shared on X by developer David Tesler, “TikTok might get banned from the app store next week.” In a series of posts, he reveals how TikTok appears to be circumventing Apple’s App Store commissions by directing users to purchase coins from its website, rather than using in-app purchases as demanded by Apple’s rules. This is the exact business model that got Fortnite booted from the App Store in 2020 as part of a publicity stunt run by Epic Games in the run-up to its massive lawsuit against Cupertino.
According to Tesler, if you visit TikTok’s ‘Recharge’ screen where you can buy coins, trying to purchase coins in-app ultimately leads to an embedded web view that lets users complete their purchase, in direct contravention of Apple’s rules. It’s unclear how long this feature has existed, but Tesler notes that “This feature isn’t shown for all users in TikTok and appears to only be shown to a select group of users,” the example he used being an account that had previously purchased “a large amount of coins.”
TikTok might get banned from the app store next weekWhy? It looks like they’re circumventing apple fee by directing users to purchase coins via external payment methods pic.twitter.com/VG8ihvsRmvApril 30, 2024
TikTok in hot water
As per Tesler, users are directed to pay for coins using Apple Pay, CC, or PayPal, all of which are not sanctioned by Apple as payment methods for digital goods in the U.S. Currently, Apple’s App Store in the U.S. only allows payments made by way of Apple’s in-app payments method, which charges developers up to 30% commission on purchases. It’s a highly contentious business model at the heart of changes being made to the iPhone and iOS 17, and latterly the iPad, in the EU. Apple must now let developers in the EU offer alternative app marketplaces and web distribution (sideloading), as well as alternative payment processing.
As noted by TechCrunch, some apps in the App Store are entitled to offer users a link to their website from within an app, but these are really only “reader” apps such as Netflix, and such apps are precluded from also offering in-app payments. As such, it seems TikTok is in contravention of Apple’s rules, but what happens next is anyone’s guess. Neither Apple nor TikTok were immediately available for comment.
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