Apple will refuse apps that charge exorbitant prices for in-app purchases – Tablets and Phones – News

Apple has begun to decline apps in the App Store that charge exorbitant prices for in-app purchases and subscriptions. From now on, developers who charge ‘irrationally high prices’ in the App Store will have to adjust their prices or offer more value in the app.

A developer received this week an email from Apple explaining that its app was no longer allowed in the App Store because it would charge an excessive amount for in-app subscriptions. In the email that the developer received, Apple states that the prices that are used must be in line with the value of the product. According to Apple, the developer can either adjust his prices or make his app more valuable to the user.

This new enforcement of the rules in the App Store comes after developer Kosta Eleftheriou early this month revealed that his own app and many other apps in the App Store are actively cloned by scammers to later rip off unsuspecting users by charging high prices for in-app purchases.

The methods used to defraud customers were according to Eleftheriou always the same: they buy false reviews, steal and use original marketing materials and charge high prices for in-app purchases or in-app subscriptions to unsuspecting customers. On Twitter Eleftheriou showed his app, FlickType, existed in the App Store and many other developers have fallen victim to these rogue practices.

Shortly after Eleftherious gave Twitter messages to Apple a statement to The Verge in which the company states that it is intensively investigating reported cases of fraud in the App Store. The company also argued that by 2020 it had removed more than 500,000 developer accounts linked to fraud cases and was able to clear more than 60 million fake user reviews from the App Store.

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