The Korea Communication Commission (KCC) said on January 11 that Apple has submitted plans to allow developers in South Korea to use third-party payment systems in their apps, Tech Crunch reported. KCC and Apple are still ironing out finer details of the plan including the new service fee rates and exact launch date, but the service fee will be lower than the 30 percent that Apple charges, The Korea Herald reported. "Apple has a great deal of respect for Korea's laws and a strong history of collaboration with the country's talented app developers [...] We look forward to working with the KCC and our developer community on a solution that benefits our Korean users," Apple said in a statement to TechCrunch. This will be the first time the iPhone maker allows developers to use an in-app payment option other than Apple's default option for sales of digital goods and services. While South Korea set the precedent with a law that forces Apple and Google to open their app stores to alternative payment systems, developers and regulators in many other countries, including India, which just launched an investigation into Apple and is already investigating Google on the same matter, are demanding the same. Apple's move in South Korea might be a sign of what is to come to the rest of the world. What is South Korea's new law for app stores? On August 30, 2021, South Korea’s National Assembly passed a first-of-its-kind bill that stipulates the following: Use of alternate payment systems: The law…
