Overview
- The Korea Media and Communications Commission ordered combined fines of 63.71 billion won, split as 42.9 billion won for Google and 20.81 billion won for Apple.
- The regulator found both companies made third-party payment options commercially unviable by imposing extra fees, display limits and submission rules that steered developers to their own billing systems.
- KMCC said developers using outside payment systems faced an effective extra 26 percent charge on top of their own costs, and it concluded Apple charged higher effective commissions in Korea by applying its 30 percent cut to tax-inclusive prices from July 2015 to January 2023.
- Apple’s tax-inclusive practice was estimated to have produced about 149.6 billion won in additional commissions and Apple received a 20 percent penalty reduction after it voluntarily revised that policy.
- The commission ordered public corrective orders, required compliance plans and said it will publish written decisions next month, monitor adherence and review Google’s March policy changes that allow some external purchases and lower developer fees.