Facebook recently submitted an update to the App Store, which was rejected by Apple's App Store Review Team, citing the Apple Tax notice.
Once again, the App Store guidelines and the associated 30 percent Apple tax are in the spotlight. Now Facebook has spoken out to Reuters and shed more light on the latest Apple tax case. The social media giant was planning to introduce a new tool that would enable smaller companies such as restaurants to sell tickets online - initially in the USA. The company, founded by Mark Zuckerberg, stressed that it does not charge any fees on sales. But this is where the Apple tax comes into play. Facebook says it approached Apple and asked for an exception because its goal is to help smaller companies. But Apple is said to have refused. For this reason, the Zuckerberg company has decided to add a small reference to the 30 percent commission.
Facebook update rejected – reason: “irrelevant” information
Interestingly, this only appears in the iOS app – but not in the Android version, even though the app is also available in the Play Store. There, too, a commission of 30 percent is usually charged. Whether Facebook was able to obtain an exception from Google is currently unknown. Whatever the case, the App Store Review Team did not miss the new notice under the feature. For this reason, the app update was rejected. According to the report, Apple informed the social media giant that the currently submitted version violates applicable App Store guidelines. Strictly speaking, the app shows users "irrelevant" information. The new version has since been revised and released. But Facebook isn't taking this lying down and has made the incident public. The company issued the following statement to Reuters: follows:
App Store: Observers expect adjustments
Now more than ever, we should have the ability to help people understand where the money they set aside for small businesses is actually going. Unfortunately, Apple rejected our transparency notice about their 30 percent tax but we are still working on making this information available within the app.
Apple itself did not respond to a request for comment. The App Store guidelines and the associated commission are currently the focus of the media. The pressure on the Cupertino-based company is increasing day by day. The House Judiciary Committee and the EU are also investigating the company. Observers now believe that Apple can no longer hold on to the 30 percent in the long term and therefore has to fear for its own business model. This means that adjustments are not completely ruled out. But whether and when this will actually happen remains to be seen. (Photo by Denys Prykhodov / Bigstockphoto)
