Apple is finally complying with South Korea’s new law on App Store purchases, allowing developers to bypass the iPhone maker’s own payment system.

The rule might not hurt Apple that much. The company was worried last year that making the change would open the door for fraud, hurt privacy and make it harder to manage payments. But Apple is still taking a sizable chunk of money from apps using third-party payment methods, so developers might not think an external payment system is even worth it.

• Apple still plans to take a 27% cut for transactions outside its payment system, and developers will need to report sales to Apple every month.
• If developers aren’t going to save that much, then what’s the point of using an alternative system? Apple knows it can get devs to keep their payments on the App Store even with these rules.

But South Korea’s rules still pave the way for other governments to take a crack at Apple and Google’s rules. And some already have.

• The Digital Markets Act in Europe, for example, would require the company to let customers sideload apps and use alternative payment systems. There’s legislation in the U.S. that would ask the same of Apple.
• That legislation has been scarier for Apple. Sideloading apps has been particularly worrying for the company, which once likened it to forcing secure homes to install unlocked doors during an increase in burglaries.

Since Epic’s lawsuit against Apple last year, the company’s so-called walled garden is getting more and more cracks. But rules targeting Apple and Google may need to be more aggressive to be impactful.

— Sarah Roach (she/her/hers)