South Korean app store law targeting Apple and Google takes effect March 15

South Korea has passed a final regulation to limit the dominant position of Apple and Google in their app stores. App store providers can no longer force developers to use their payment systems. The law will take effect on March 15.

The government of South Korea reached an agreement on Tuesday, March 8, for such app store rules, Reuters news agency reported. The regulation should prevent app store providers such as Apple and Google from obliging developers to use their payment system and have to pay commissions for this.

The new rules specifically prohibit app store providers from ‘forcing a specific payment method on a mobile content developer’ by exploiting the app store’s dominant position. That’s according to a statement from the Korean Communications Commission, which has been seen by Reuters. The law also prohibits other actions, such as delaying reviews for mobile apps, in addition to denying, restricting or delaying the registration of apps that use an alternative payment system.

The law will officially come into effect on March 15. This gives Apple and Google a week to comply with the law. However, the law has been a long time coming. South Korea already passed a law to make this mandatory last year, in the form of an amendment to the Telecommunication Business Act. The concrete details and rules for that law had yet to be made, and that happened on Tuesday.

Apple and Google had already submitted their plans to comply with the law, although South Korea then indicated that the country was not yet satisfied with the solutions the companies offered. Reuters writes on Tuesday that no progress has been made since then. Companies that fail to comply with the law can be fined 2 percent of the average annual turnover from “related business activities.”