Korea fines Google and Apple 63.7 billion won over app payment rules

Korea fines Google and Apple 63.7 billion won over app payment rules

28 October 2026: South Korea's Korea Media and Communications Commission has fined Google 42.9 billion won and Apple 20.81 billion won, and ordered both to change how they let app developers take payment. It is the first time the 2021 amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act, which bans app market operators from forcing a payment method or delaying app review without cause, has been enforced. The commission decided the case at its plenary meeting on 28 October, after inspections and fact-finding that began in 2022.

Not yet independently verified. The fines, findings and quotes are from the commission's own release. The one-month deadline for compliance plans and the three-month deadline for implementation come from Yonhap's report; the release itself does not state them. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

Payment outside the app

Both companies opened their stores to "third-party payment", a billing system built by the developer inside the app, after the law passed. The commission found that the opening was largely on paper. Developers who chose it still paid a 26% commission and lost features such as subscription management, before counting their own payment processing and settlement costs. Payment methods outside the app, such as a link to the developer's website, were not allowed at all.

Each company added conditions of its own: Google restricted how developers could show prices by payment method, and Apple required a separate app submission to use third-party billing. Taken together, the commission says, the terms had the effect of forcing developers onto the stores' own in-app payment.

App review delays

The second finding concerns review. Both companies, the commission says, delayed app reviews without telling developers the specific reason, and did not answer individual enquiries with the cause or an expected timeline, even though predictable review is central to how developers plan releases.

Apple's commission on tax

The third finding applies to Apple alone. From the Value Added Tax Act change of July 2015 until January 2023, Apple charged its 30% commission to overseas developers on the price net of VAT, but to Korean developers on the full consumer price including VAT. The commission ruled that this was unfair discrimination between users of the service.

What the companies must change

The corrective orders require both companies to change policies that restrict developers' choice of payment method and their app review procedures, and require Apple to prevent any repeat of the domestic and overseas commission gap. Yonhap reports that the orders include allowing external payment links and bringing third-party payment fees to reasonable levels, that both companies must submit compliance plans within a month of receiving the written decisions and implement them within three months, and that the written decisions follow next month.

"I hope these measures will mark a turning point, bringing meaningful changes to the market that app developers and end users can actually feel," said Kim Jong-cheol, the commission's chairman, in Yonhap's English rendering. He added that the commission would keep enforcing the law without discriminating between domestic and foreign companies.

The commission noted that Google announced a revised payment policy in March, allowing external payment and cutting its service fee, and that Apple had described voluntary improvements to it; it will watch how both settle in the Korean market. Korean developers selling digital goods should expect the written orders to set what they can link to and what fee applies, and should hold pricing changes until then.

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Sources

• Korea Media and Communications Commission: 구글·애플, 외부결제 허용하고 수수료 체계 개선해야 (press release), 28 October 2026
• Korea Herald (Yonhap): Communications watchdog fines Google, Apple over in-app payment policies, 28 October 2026
• Korea Herald: Google, Apple hit with W63.7b fine in Korea's app store crackdown, 28 October 2026