Apple warns developers of regulatory changes coming to India

App Store on iPhone
App Store on iPhone (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Apple is warning developers of upcoming regulatory changes in India.
  • The changes could impact the processing of auto-renewable subscriptions.
  • Specifically, there are new requirements for auto-renewable subscriptions with debit and credit cards.

There are some changes coming to the App Store in India.

In a news update on the Apple Developer website, Apple has announced that new regulatory requirements in the country could result in credit and debit cards being declined for auto-renewable subscriptions if they are not updated to meet the new requirements.

Starting in October 2021, regulatory requirements in India will apply to the processing of recurring transactions. The Reserve Bank of India has issued a directive that will affect purchases in India initiated via credit cards and debit cards for auto-renewable subscriptions. This directive requires banks, financial institutions, and gateways to obtain user approval by conducting transaction notifications, e-mandates, and Additional Factors of Authentication (AFA) before the transaction can be completed. As a result, some transactions that don't meet these requirements will be declined by banks or card issuers. For more information and updates, see the Reserve Bank of India website.

If you are a developer and offer auto-renewable subscriptions in your app, Apple has provided the following steps to try and prevent or fix any declined transactions:

Promote paying with Apple ID. Users who pay with their Apple ID balance will not be impacted by these requirements at this time. Users can add funds to their Apple ID using most credit and debit cards, Net Banking, RuPay, and UPI.Provide a billing grace period. Enable Billing Grace Period in App Store Connect so subscribers with declined transactions or other payment issues have time to update their payment information while retaining access to your app's paid content. There won't be any interruption to the subscription's days of paid service or to your revenue if payment is successful within the grace period.

Developers can learn more on the Apple Developer website.

Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.