Apple Ordered to Lift In-App Purchase Restrictions in Brazil

Yet another antitrust regulator has taken issue with Apple’s in-app payment system.

As Reuters reported Monday (Nov. 25), Brazil’s Cade says Apple must do away with restrictions on payment methods for in-app purchases.

The regulator will also proceed with an investigation into a complaint brought two years ago by Latin American eCommerce giant MercadoLibre, accusing Apple of imposing restrictions on the distribution of digital goods and in-app purchases in Mexico and Brazil.

These restrictions, the report said, allegedly included preventing apps from distributing third-party digital goods and services like movies, music or video games. MercadoLibre’s complaint criticized Apple for requiring developers to use its own payment system and keeping them from directing customers to their websites.

Cade says Apple must let developers add tools directing their users to payment options outside the app, as well as other in-app payment processing options beside Apple’s. PYMNTS has contacted Apple for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.

The company can face fines of up to $43,000 per day if it does not comply with these measures within 20 days, the report said.

Apple’s in-app payments policy has been at the center of antitrust actions around the world. For example, a developer in China earlier this month accused the company of monopolistic behavior after Apple removed its app from its store.

The tech giant had removed the Bodyreader app, which helps children correct their posture, from its App Store in 2020, alleging “dishonest” behavior by the company.

Apple also this year began giving developers access to its near-field communication (NFC) technology after agreeing with the European Commission (EC) to allow access to the technology on iPhones.

The EC, which is the executive arm of the EU, had charged Apple with competition law violations in 2022, accusing the iPhone maker of barring competitors from accessing the technology that enables tap-and-go payments. Apple said in June it would open its payments tech to third parties, thus avoiding a fine from the EC.

“From now on, competitors will be able to effectively compete with Apple Pay for mobile payments with the iPhone in shops,” said Margrethe Vestager, vice president in charge of competition policy for the EU. “So consumers will have a wider range of safe and innovative mobile wallets to choose from.”

As PYMNTS wrote in May, NFC technology “has become a flashpoint in the jousting between Big Tech and regulators in the United States” as well.