Apple now allows subscription apps to charge you more

[midian182]

A hot potato: If you subscribe to a service through an App Store application, you might want to pay attention to any emails or notifications it sends out. Apple has just changed its policy so developers can increase the price of subs and keep users signed up without requiring their permission.

The new App Store rules state that subscriptions can now auto-renew even when the prices have increased. Previously, users needed to opt-in to renew their subscriptions if there had been a recent price hike.

The good news is that users will receive emails, push notifications, and in-app notifications about an upcoming renewal of a subscription that has become more expensive.

Additionally, developers are limited to how much they can increase their subscription price before it requires user consent to renew. If it goes up by more than 50% and the difference is over $5, it doesn't qualify for auto-renewal. It can go up by more than 50% on annual subs, but the price difference can't be more than $50 without requiring user permission.

Another important factor is that auto-renewals of more expensive subs can only happen once per year—any more will require opting in. This should prevent shady developers from repeatedly increasing their subscriptions by small amounts across 12 months in the hope that users don't notice.

Apple says it has implemented the change because some users missed notifications to opt-in when a subscription price increased, causing an interruption in the service and requiring them to sign up again. But it's hard to imagine most people being happy about the new policy, despite what Apple believes.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/94618-apple-now-allows-subscription-apps-auto-renew-after.html

 

[VaRmeNsI]

I suspect there will be developers who slowly raise it over time assuming people will forget to cancel.

 

[FaTaL]

This should be illegal. I could be a douchebag and start charging 2x or 3x the amount if I felt like it..

 

[Squid Surprise]

Honestly, I think companies should abuse this as much as possible. It's the only way to educate people on actually MANAGING their subscriptions.

If you are paying for ANYTHING, YOU should be the one responsible for making sure you are getting what you paid for!

If you ignore a price increase, then it is on you!

 

[m4a4]

This should be illegal. I could be a douchebag and start charging 2x or 3x the amount if I felt like it..

If you read the article, you'd know that there are limits to how much more it can be increased before requiring user approval........

 

[dangh]

Honestly, I think companies should abuse this as much as possible. It's the only way to educate people on actually MANAGING their subscriptions.

If you are paying for ANYTHING, YOU should be the one responsible for making sure you are getting what you paid for!

If you ignore a price increase, then it is on you!

that's stupid. If there is price increase I shoud get an information and then decide if I shoud continue or cancel. What if developer change subscription 3 minutes before payment from $5 to $500, is that still alright?
Any change to the agreement should be done only with both sides approval.

 

[Squid Surprise]

that's stupid. If there is price increase I shoud get an information and then decide if I shoud continue or cancel. What if developer change subscription 3 minutes before payment from $5 to $500, is that still alright?
Any change to the agreement should be done only with both sides approval.

You didn't read the article, did you? While they don't need user permission for CERTAIN increases, they still need to NOTIFY you when any changes happen. If you don't read those notifications... it's on YOU!

But I guess that gives us the reason you are so angry about this....

 

[m4a4]

...If people can't be bothered to keep track of their subscriptions (especially when they'll be getting notifications for them and their potential price increases), then whatever. Prices were getting increased anyways by the devs. And it's not a new practice; other subscription services outside of the AppStore already do it.

Of all the things Apple has done, this one I'm surprised wasn't a thing before...

 

[ypsylon]

How the f this is legal?

The only winner here is Apple. Only they will benefit %cut from ever slowly & silently raising subscription cost. At some stage people who can't control their subscription spending will just get very nasty surprise while FruityCult will laugh all the way to the ApplePay. Supposed notifications and e-mails are just cheap excuse, especially for people in the hurry. It's easy to miss or delete.

Up to 50% is smokescreen. Intelligent dev studio/scam studio will do that in monthly steps .50c or 1$ at a time across 12 months not 30$ in one go. Simple stuff, only Apple don't understand this.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

This is an obvious violation of the contract...unless you sign a contract allowing the providers to charge you more over time.

 

[dangh]

You didn't read the article, did you? While they don't need user permission for CERTAIN increases, they still need to NOTIFY you when any changes happen. If you don't read those notifications... it's on YOU!

But I guess that gives us the reason you are so angry about this....

sure, sure. Haven't yopu noticed that there is more and more automation on the ways people blled money on nuimerous services and big companies constantly pushing for extra space and bigger control of your wallet?

This is classical example of boiling a frog. People becoming indifferent to what is happening, and you need to put constntly more and more attention to keep same level of control. Long time ago it was enough to just keep money in your (physical) wallet. Now you need to constantly be aware of multiple direct debits, services, highway payment prices, levies and so on to just barely know what is happening with money.
This above is just another step.

 

[Squid Surprise]

sure, sure. Haven't yopu noticed that there is more and more automation on the ways people blled money on nuimerous services and big companies constantly pushing for extra space and bigger control of your wallet?

This is classical example of boiling a frog. People becoming indifferent to what is happening, and you need to put constntly more and more attention to keep same level of control. Long time ago it was enough to just keep money in your (physical) wallet. Now you need to constantly be aware of multiple direct debits, services, highway payment prices, levies and so on to just barely know what is happening with money.
This above is just another step.

It's called living with the times... not boiling a frog... there are also thousands of things available to purchase that simply didn't exist back in "the good old days". People need to learn to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for their own actions - especially their purchases.

There's also a thing called "burying your hand in the sand" - time to look up!

 

[Sausagemeat]

The corporations are really pushing Apple at the moment. If they get their way and they get a judge to force Apple to allow sideloading we are going to see all sorts of shenanigans happening when a corpo asks you to sign up to a sub on some dodgy website and asks you to sideload some cranky piece of software.

 

[dangh]

It's called living with the times... not boiling a frog... there are also thousands of things available to purchase that simply didn't exist back in "the good old days". People need to learn to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for their own actions - especially their purchases.

There's also a thing called "burying your hand in the sand" - time to look up!

yeah, or, just maybe, it is exploiting vulnerable and not tech savy?
People need to learn everything today. Preferably by themselves, because government wont bother to provide any information to help with taxes or critical thinking as main curriculum - at least in US, northern europe actually tries to educate kids on different ways to understand the real impact of decissions.
Difference is, I do not agree to automated increase of a cost without explicite confirmation of the user. This is not difficult to implement, nor any issue to service provider and the user - except, it will reduce the income of a company, and help user to maintain expenses. There is nothing wrong with helping users to manage expenses, but... maybe you should got educated in Finland for this
And yes - I wish people will TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for their own actions... but in this very case, the ACTION is simply not needed anymore, and that is just another step to hide this even deeper. If someone had an accident which would keep him on hospital bed for half a year with limited mobility - he will end paying more.
user choice and user data should be under his full control. Ceeding, willingly, this decission to a megacorporation is kinda weird. Unless you're the ceo.