South Korea’s National Assembly on August 30 passed a first-of-its-kind bill that forces Google and Apple to open their app stores to alternative payment systems. The bill now awaits to be signed into law by the president, whose party strongly endorsed the legislation. The legislation comes at a time when both Apple and Google are facing increased regulatory scrutiny and legal battles across the world with respect to their app store practices. "As bills with similar implications are being proposed in the U.S. and Europe, South Korea’s bill will become a cornerstone for legislating app market platform regulations worldwide." - Chairman Han Sang-hyuk, Korea Communications Commission. What does the new law say? The law, which amends South Korea’s Telecommunications Business Act, stipulates the following: Use of alternate payment systems: The law prevents companies that run app stores from forcing developers to use the store's in-app payment systems. Current practice: Currently, both Google and Apple require apps that are downloaded from their respective stores to use the in-app payment systems for any sale of digital goods or services through the app and pay a commission on each sale. For example, if a game that was downloaded from Google Play Store sold an in-game avatar to the user, the payment must be processed through Google's billing system and Google keeps 30 percent of the sale value as commission. Developers are not allowed to notify users about alternative payment systems such as on the developer's website. What changes for developers? The new law allows developers to…
