Apple to allow outside payment options in South Korean iOS, report says

Apple will let users in South Korea pay for goods in apps through third-party payment processors, although the details of the plan are unclear, according to a report in The Verge.

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The iPhone maker currently routes transactions through its own systems, allowing it to take a 30% commission that has become the focus of controversy around the world and fueled calls for outside payment options that wouldn't demand the same level of fees. South Korea had passed a landmark bill last August that would regulate Apple and Google restrictions on third-party payment systems.

Those payment options also lay at the center of last year's trial in the lawsuit between Apple and Epic Games. A federal judge had ruled in September against Apple's "anti-steering" provisions, clearing the way for developers to alert users that they could circumvent the fees elsewhere, perhaps by buying on the web.

Some readings of the decision, however, might effectively allow lower-fee, outside payments options within the apps themselves, although an appeals court has paused the decision for now.