South Korea Fines Google and Apple $47.6 Million Over App Store Practices

South Korea fined Alphabet's Google and Apple a combined 63.7 billion won ($47.6 million) on Wednesday, ruling that the two companies abused their dominance in app store markets by forcing local developers onto their own payment systems and delaying app reviews without explanation.

The Korea Media and Communications Commission, the country's media and telecommunications regulator, split the penalty: 42.9 billion won ($32 million) for Google and 20.8 billion won ($15.5 million) for Apple. It also ordered both companies to let South Korean developers use external payment links within their apps and to improve their app review procedures.

Neither Google nor Apple immediately responded to requests for comment.

What did the regulator actually find?

The commission spent years investigating the U.S. tech giants for allegedly violating a 2021 law that prohibits app store operators from forcing developers to use specific payment systems.

According to the commission, Google and Apple unfairly pushed app developers toward their own in-app payment systems while barring payments through external websites. The companies technically allowed third-party payment systems within apps. But they charged developers a 26% commission on those alternatives and withheld some features that were available through their own systems.

That combination, the commission said, effectively forced developers onto the companies' in-app payment rails regardless of what the letter of the rules allowed.

The takeaway: a 26% commission on outside payments made the "choice" between payment systems largely theoretical.

How did app reviews come into it?

The commission said it also found instances where Google and Apple delayed app reviews without clearly explaining to developers the reasons for the delays or when reviews would resume.

For developers, that means stalled releases with no timeline and no stated cause — a process the regulator now wants corrected under its improvement order.

The regulator separately accused Apple of charging South Korean developers higher commissions than developers elsewhere from 2015 to January 2023 — a roughly eight-year stretch of allegedly uneven pricing.

Why South Korea, and why now?

South Korea has closely scrutinized the business practices of foreign technology companies operating in its market for years. In 2021, it became the first country to enforce a law prohibiting app market operators such as Google and Apple from requiring users to use their own in-app payment systems.

Wednesday's fines are the concrete result of that first-mover legislation: a multi-year investigation turned into a $47.6 million penalty and binding corrective orders.

The stakes now shift to compliance. Google and Apple must open their Korean apps to external payment links and overhaul review procedures — and how they implement those orders will signal whether other regulators following Seoul's 2021 precedent can expect real structural change or another round of technical half-measures.

Reported with input from Kim Tong-Hyung of the Associated Press.