Apple to Provide Information About Legal Basis for App Removals

Apple will soon provide more information about its removal of apps from its App Store.

Apple told investors that its Transparency Report will include information about the legal basis for countries’ requests for it to remove apps, The Financial Times (FT) reported Wednesday (Jan. 11). This will begin with the next such report.

To date, Apple’s Transparency Report has only named the countries that asked for removals, the number of requests they made and whether Apple complied with the requests, according to the FT report, which cited unnamed sources.

The company will not say why individual apps have been removed.

Apple did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

The move follows complaints by activist investors that Apple has been secretive about why it blocks some apps, and that the information it presently reports does not give a detailed look at its reasons, according to the report.

Investors have said that some religious study tools were banned from the App Store in China, as were some messaging tools and social media apps, and nearly one-third of shareholders voted in March that Apple should provide more information about its relationships with foreign governments.

This news comes about a week after it was reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in December to discuss the country’s potential regulation of app stores.

Cook was looking to reach an agreement that Kishida would consider the ramifications such regulation would have on Apple users if they are forced to use third-party app stores in Japan.

As PYMNTS reported Jan. 2, Apple has opposed government regulation of app distribution for a long time, as the company has said previously that third-party apps delivered from outside its App Store could put users’ privacy at risk.

The news also comes a day after Apple’s rival Google reportedly told the Indian Supreme Court that an antitrust order will slow the growth of the Android ecosystem in the country.

Google said in a court filing that the antitrust order will require it to modify its contracts, its license agreements and its arrangements with a thousand device manufacturers and thousands of app developers.