Brazil Gives Apple Deadline Of 20 Days To Lift Restrictions On In-App Payment, Here's What We Know

In 2022, MercadoLibre, filed a complaint accusing Apple of enforcing a series of restrictive practices related to the distribution of digital goods and in-app purchases.

MercadoLibre alleged that Apple banned apps from offering third-party digital products and services such as movies, music, video games, books, and other written content.

Source : Unsplash/zhang kaiyv

Apple continues to be under the fire for the restrictions that it has imposed on payment methods for in-app purchases. Brazilian antitrust regulator Cade on Monday said that Apple must lift those restrictions on in-app purchases.

The Brazilian watchdog continues to proceed with an investigation into a complaint filed by Latin American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre. 

What Is In The Complaint Filed By MercadoLibre?

In 2022, MercadoLibre, one of the largest e-commerce platforms in Latin America, filed a complaint in Brazil and Mexico, accusing Apple of enforcing a series of restrictive practices related to the distribution of digital goods and in-app purchases. Specifically, MercadoLibre alleged that Apple banned apps from offering third-party digital products and services such as movies, music, video games, books, and other written content. The complaint also pointed out that Apple required developers who sold digital goods or services within apps to exclusively use Apple’s own payment system, preventing them from redirecting customers to external websites to complete transactions.

Following the complaint, Brazil's competition and antitrust regulator, Cade, issued a ruling requiring Apple to make changes to its app store policies. The regulator directed Apple to allow app developers to integrate tools that would enable users to purchase services or products outside the app, such as through links to external websites.

Moreover, Apple was instructed to allow developers to offer alternative in-app payment processing methods besides Apple's own. Cade gave Apple a strict 20-day deadline to implement these changes. Should the company fail to comply, it faces a hefty fine of 250,000 Brazilian reals (around $43,000) per day.

This decision underscores regulators' increasing focus on ensuring fair competition in the digital marketplace.