Google will follow South Korea’s recently passed laws and allow developers to add alternative payment systems to their apps.
Google has announced it will comply with recently passed South Korean laws and allow Android app developers to provide alternative payment systems within apps. South Korea recently approved legislation to require app marketplaces to allow developers to use alternatives in-app billing systems. The laws also ban app store marketplaces from unreasonably delaying the approval of apps or deleting them from the marketplace. As part of Google’s acceptance of this mandate, Android developers will now be able to add an alternative in-app billing system that will sit alongside Google Play’s billing system, Google said in a blog post. At checkout, users will be able to choose which billing system to use. Google will still charge developers a commission if users opt to pay through the alternative billing system, however, but the fee will be slightly lower than previous rates. According to Google, the new fee is compensation for Google’s role in distributing apps on Android and the Google Play Store.
