He refuses to pay 30% from the App Store, and Apple blocks his request

Racing driver, frame creator Ruby is on the rails And co-owner and CTO of 37 signalsDavid Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) emerged again at the beginning of the year on the social network [X]. This time the case concerns his company 37 Signals.

The latter, among other things, develops applications (web and mobile) through its subsidiary Base camps, Including HEY Email, which is a paid mailbox Highly appreciated by its users. In order to expand its services, David Heinemeyer Hansson recently announced Hey calendar, Independent calendar application for subscribers Hello email. Unfortunately for him, it was not released on the App Store as planned.

DHH is angry with Apple after the company banned its new app Oh calendar From the App Store. because of, The fact that it is not usable by people who have not subscribed to the paid subscriptionwhich can only be joined outside of the App Store.

This is not the first time

In 2020, David was already blocked from accessing the App Store using Hello emailAnd for the same reasons. However, he won his case from the App Store Review Board.

Apple's vice president of marketing, Phil Schiller, was involved at the time and suggested to David that they offer a free option to new iOS users. This is so that they can register for the app, so it does not remain unusable for those who have not signed up for the offer outside of the App Store.

HEY agreed, but on the condition that it was a free offer limited to 14 days. Users had to subscribe outside the App Store to continue enjoying it. The system has been in place for four years now and Apple has let it slide. The company actually doesn't get a commission on HEY.

Coincidence makes things bad

After the HEY episode, Apple created an exception in its App Store rules. It stipulates that any free application that relies on a paid service outside the App Store is not required to have an integrated payment mechanism. The exception includes, among others, email, cloud storage, and web hosting services, but not calendar services, To David's great misfortune.

Latest in a recent blog post: “ After spending 19 days reviewing our application, forcing us to miss the long-planned launch date of January 2, Apple rejected our free, standalone companion app “because it doesn't do anything.” This is because users must log in with an existing account to use this feature.»

He objects to Apple's decision and regularly expresses his dissatisfaction on the social network. He is very determined to never pay the 30% commission.

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Apple just called to let us know they're rejecting the HEY Calendar app from the App Store (in current form). Same bullying tactics as last time: Send the subtle rejection of a call to someone by first name only who will politely tell you it's your wallet or your knees.

– DHH (@dhh) January 5, 2024

See also:

i-nfo.fr – the official iPhon.fr application

By: Keleops AG