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Comment by sva_ | Hacker News Reader

I know that Apple's Terms say that you can't explain to your users, that they have to pay some 30% "Apple Tax" for in-app purchases. But could you just say something like "30% mobile phone app fee", to go around it, while making it clear to the user why they're paying this amount? I feel like it would be illegal for Apple (or Google Play) to prohibit developers from breaking down costs like that? Like I don't get it.

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They do prohibit developers from breaking down the costs like that. This is the guideline they would cite you for:

> 3.1.3 The following apps may use purchase methods other than in-app purchase. Apps in this section cannot, within the app, encourage users to use a purchasing method other than in-app purchase.

Yes, it should be illegal for them to prevent you from breaking the cost down, but they have historically interpreted this statement that way.

We need to make it a state law first, that fees like this cannot be hidden. Have CA or someone else large do it.

Should vendors have to specify what portion of their monthly property taxes and rent go into the service/item a customer is buying as well?

No but i think it would be useful to apply the law generally to situations where there are multiple payment options. E.g. credit cards vs cash in store. Right now stores are forbidden by CC companies to post a different price for CC vs cash, or to otherwise breakdown the cost of using a credit cards.

I suppose you could read it like that. I think consumers should have a right to know what they're paying for. One should be able to say that you pay x for hosting, y for software development/maintenance, and z for the platform offering the app for you. I don't see how anything against this could prevent someone from breaking it down like that. But here we are.

Fortnite did this, which lead to them being removed from the App Store shortly thereafter.

[0] https://www.ithinkdiff.com/fornite-mega-drop-offers-discount...

Fortnite also allowed alternative payment methods. I think that’s the main reason why they were removed.

Netflix also does this, I fail to see how Fortnite's case was special unless Apple is dealing cards under the table here.

I don't recall Netflix doing this.

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