South Korea Fines Apple and Google $47.6 Million Over App Store Practices
South Korea's communications regulator has fined Apple and Google for violating the Telecommunications Business Act through their app store practices. The penalties were imposed on October 28, 2026. Engadget reports Google's fine at KRW 42.9 billion, or about $32 million, and Apple's at KRW 20.81 billion, or about $15.6 million. Together, the two penalties come to $47.6 million, according to AP.
The enforcer is the Korea Media and Communications Commission. It began fact-finding investigations and on-site inspections of both companies in 2022. Its findings fall into three areas: payments, app review timing and commission calculation.
On payments, the regulator found that Apple and Google forced developers to use their own in-app payment systems, the built-in checkout for purchases made inside an app. It also found that both companies charged a 26 percent commission on third-party payments and prohibited external payments. Under the order, both companies must accept external payments.
On app review, the regulator found that reviews were delayed without a clear reason. Developers who asked individually about the delays received no answers, according to the findings.
On pricing, the regulator found that Apple calculated commissions differently depending on where a developer was based. For South Korean developers, Apple applied the commission to VAT-inclusive prices, meaning prices that already include value-added tax, a sales tax added at the point of purchase. For overseas developers, it applied the commission to pre-VAT prices. AP reports that South Korean authorities said both companies abused their dominance in app store markets.
The regulator has ordered both companies to change their app store business practices. Apple and Google must accept external payments and revise their app review procedures. Apple must also stop discriminating between domestic and overseas app developers.
The penalties are lower than the figures the regulator had considered earlier. In October 2023, Reuters reported that the regulator had weighed combined fines of up to 68 billion won, with up to 47.5 billion won proposed for Google.
The broader context here is the length of the process. The inquiry dates to 2022, and the final decision arrived more than four years later. For developers, the operational provisions may matter more than the fines. The commission structure, the review timetable and the pricing basis together determine how much revenue a developer keeps from each sale and how predictably an app reaches the store. A fine is a one-time charge. The required changes, if implemented, would alter how transactions are routed and how long developers wait.
In my view, the VAT finding deserves more attention than its share of the headlines. A commission applied to a tax-inclusive price in one market and a pre-tax price in another is a difference in arithmetic, not in the headline rate, and it is easy to overlook in a discussion of percentages. It is the kind of detail regulators tend to find only through on-site inspection of billing systems. The order's non-discrimination requirement addresses that difference directly.
The practical effects will depend on how Apple and Google implement the orders. If external payment options become available in Korea, developers there will gain a billing path they lacked under the previous rules. That is the most concrete change the decision points toward. The rest will show up in review turnaround times and in the commission statements developers receive.
