App Store apps will be able to automatically renew subscriptions even in the event of a price increase: Apple announced it in the past few hours by updating its guidelines. There are a few rules that developers must adhere to, especially regarding the amount of the increment:
- in monthly and weekly passes, it cannot be more than $ 5 and 50% of the original price. Both conditions must be true: for example, $ 20 to $ 25 a month is fine, $ 2 to $ 7 is not.
- in annual passes, it cannot be more than $ 50 and 50% of the original price. Here too, as above, both conditions must be true.
- increases without consent cannot be more frequent than once a year.
Previously, even the smallest cost increase of a subscription required the explicit consent of the user; Apple says the regulation change was introduced for prevent a subscriber from losing access to the service because they did not notice the consent request notification. However, the company specifies that an informative notification will always be sent, with information and shortcuts to change your subscription.
Over the past few weeks, clues have emerged in this regard. There was a notification from Disney Plus, which you can see above, notifying the price increase without asking for consent. Apple had confirmed that it was a test. The first hot reactions are mixed: on the one hand there is the convenience of not having to do anything every time a service increases prices, even slightly, but on the other hand it is easy to imagine how the change in the default could lead to the feeling of having little control over one’s flow of money. Incidentally, the limits imposed by Apple seem a little too generous (towards services). Colleagues from The Verge they note that a lot of controversy could be limited quite simply by making the novelty optional, for example with a toggle in the App Store settings.
