Apple Stops Facebook from Disclosing its 30% App Store Fee

As you may be aware, Apple and Epic Games are currently in the opening sessions of what will undoubtedly be a long legal battle over the former’s policy of taking a 30% cut of any app store purchases. In a report via TechSpot, however, it seems that another dispute with Apple may be set to boil over.

Who is it this time? Well, apparently Facebook attempted to disclose that Apple takes money (their cut) from purchases made on one of its new features. They have, however, since been told to remove it as it violates store terms as ‘irrelevant’ information.

Apple VS Facebook!

Facebook recently launched a new feature allowing users to host online paid events. Specifically, so that people could attempt to make some money while in COVID-19 lockdown. Sounds good right? Well, apparently despite approaching them, an agreement couldn’t be reached with Apple for them to drop their 30% cut (so all the money could go to the user).

So, what did Facebook do? They decided to disclose this information with an “Apple takes 30% of this purchase” disclaimer on any relevant payment page. As you might have guessed, this decision did not go down well with the tech giant.

“That’s Irrelevant”

Apple has since forced Facebook to remove this disclaimer by, somewhat amusingly, describing it as being against their store policy as ‘irrelevant information’. In an official statement, Facebook has said:

“Now more than ever, we should have the option to help people understand where money they intend for small businesses actually goes. Unfortunately Apple rejected our transparency notice around their 30% tax but we are still working to make that information available inside the app experience.”

Now, exactly what Facebook will do regarding this is unclear. It does, however, seem that we have yet another company who is growing more than a little sick of Apple’s financial policy of making sure it always has a finger in any IOS related pie! I mean, could Epic Games find itself getting a new and unexpected ally in its legal battle?… I wouldn’t be surprised!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!