Apple's updated rules allowing web signup links appear to apply only to apps that don't make much money for Apple, like Netflix and Spotify
It's for apps that don't make Apple any money anyways — While vocal app developers accused Apple last week of spinning a lawsuit settlement …
Context & Ripple Effects
A week after developers dismissed Apple's settlement "clarifications", The Verge's read of the updated rules is that they are narrower than they look: web signup links are allowed, but mainly for apps like Netflix and Spotify that already steer subscriptions off the App Store, meaning Apple forgoes little commission it was actually collecting.
The carve-out matters because it previews how Apple would keep writing payment rules: the later US App Store filing explicitly excludes apps in Apple's own Video Partner and News Partner programs, and the 2025 approval of Spotify's external-payment update came only after years of pressure — a slow, selective loosening rather than an opening.
First-order effects
- Netflix and Spotify can keep web-based signup flows in their iOS apps without paying Apple's commission, but the exemption covers apps Apple barely earns from — developers whose revenue Apple does take gain nothing from this update.
Second-order effects
- Apps in categories where Apple's cut is real are pushed toward the workaround Spotify eventually chose elsewhere: when rules got tight, Spotify simply removed audiobook purchasing from its iOS app rather than pay, showing developers will cut features before conceding the take rate.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — exemptions keyed to Apple's revenue relationships and partner programs — App Store payment rules harden into a two-tier structure where Apple's commercial partners keep their commissions while everyone else litigates or lobbies for the same terms.
The trend: Apple is conceding external payments app by app and category by category, under legal and regulatory pressure, rather than reforming the App Store take rate wholesale.