In App Purchase

Question

in the App Store Review Guidelines is stated in section that "Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the application will be rejected."

Looking also into iOS Developer Program License Agreement referenced in 11.12 of the App Store Review Guidelines I can see there in Attachment 2, section 1. 1.11 that "You may not use the In App Purchase API to offer goods or services to be used outside of Your Application."

1/According to my understanding everything which is not consumed within the application like ordering of e.g. paper books, food delivery, flight tickets, electronics cannot be done via the In App Purchase mechanism. Everything which is consumed within the application like e-books, video streams, audio streams, new game levels, etc. (when the provided content is in accordance with App Store Review Guidelines and iOS Developer Program License Agreement) and user is charged for this content, the IAP must be used or can be an option to other payment system as stated in 11.3.

2/ For the In App Purchase there is not any limit for the 30% fee for the Apple, e.g. theoretically if the content is charged for 10.000USD, Apple takes 3.000USD.

Are my assumptions correct?

BR STeN

Answer 1

Yes, that is correct. Note however, that if you use an alternative payment mechanism, Apple still wants their 30% cut.

Answer 2

Indeed, it seems like your assumptions are correct.

Quoting from Apple's Guidelines - 11.3 Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the application will be rejected.

This is validated by apps that are already in the Apple app store, such as Groupon, Fandango, Chegg and others that charge users credit cards for physical goods or goods consumed outside of the app without passing the transaction through Apple.

Answer 3

I believe your interpretation is correct. Although in-app purchases have to be set at price poitns as well, you can't simply enter an amount.

Answer 4

Apple does not take 30% of the transaction if its for physical good.

As stated above for such goods the app needs to use other mechanism then Apple's IAP for taking the money. This answer is verified with apps and companies that I work with.

Other libraries for physical payments for iOS can be: Card IO, PayPal, ZooZ and maybe others.