Apple has updated its App Store policy letting developers charge increased prices for auto-renewable subscriptions. This means that if there is a price increase in the app, subscription can auto-renew without your explicit permission.
Prior to the update, when the developer increases the price of an auto-renewable subscription, users would have to manually confirm a subscription renewal, otherwise the subscription will be cancelled.
According to Apple, they are changing the rules to help avoid the situation where users unintentionally lose access to a subscription because they missed an opt-in message, as per The Verge report.
New Policy Comes With Limits or Specific Conditions
In the report of The Verge that cited Apple's Monday evening post, there are specific conditions that developers will have to follow if they want to offer "an auto-renewable subscription price increase."
For instance, according to 9to5mac, users will be notified of the subscription price change. Apple also makes it clear that the price increase should only be once a year, which should help prevent scammy apps from slowly increasing their price by a buck or two every other month, as per The Verge.
Apple's rules say that the increase can only be a maximum of $5 for regular subscriptions or $50 for annual subscriptions. In cases where the subscription's increase will exceed $5 or $50, users have to opt-in.
In these situations, Apple will let users know about price changes via email, push notification, and a message within the app, as per 9to5mac report. Users will also have the option to cancel the subscription if they prefer to.
"Auto-renewable subscriptions are a great way to let people access content, services, or premium features in your app. And Apple continues to set the bar in making it easy and transparent for subscribers to view, cancel, or manage their subscriptions," Apple stated.
According to Apple, the price increase has to be "permissible by local law."
Read Also: Apple App Store to Allow External Payments in the Near Future
Apple Throws Hints That This Change in Policy is Coming
According to The Verge, there has been an evidence that this change was coming as last month, TechCrunch reported that Apple seemed to be testing this change with a Disney Plus price increase.
Apple, last month, confirmed that it was "piloting a new commerce feature we plan to launch very soon," and said that it would provide details.
The Verge said that Apple's making a trade-off here between consumer friendliness and convenience. A lot of people will be happy that they won't have to go and re-subscribe to an app just because the price increased and they missed an opt-in prompt.
To fix this, Apple could let users pick whether or not they want the auto-renewing price increases instead of making the decision for them. It may simply be a toggle in the App Store settings that says something like "Always ask for opt-in if price increases," as per The Verge report.
Furthermore, if Apple wanted to be really consumer-friendly, it could make it so subscriptions don't auto-renew by default.
When asked whether there were plans to add such a toggle, Apple didn't immediately respond to The Verge's question.
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