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The mobile app space in the US just fundamentally changed.
On April 30, 2025, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple violated her 2021 injunction by continuing to restrict how developers inform users about alternative payment options.
Outlined in the 80-page decision, the judge found that Apple "willfully" violated the court order "with the express intent to create new anticompetitive barriers" to maintain its revenue stream.
It’s the latest turn in the Epic Games v Apple legal saga, which stretches back to 2021, when a Bay Area court ruled that Apple was blocking apps from informing users about alternative payment methods, therefore violating California’s Unfair Competition Law.
Let’s get into what this change actually means in practice for app developers.
Apple's updated guidelines (in the US)
As of May 1st 2025, Apple has officially updated the App Store Guidelines to comply with the court's ruling.
According to an email sent to developers on May 1, 2025, the key changes include:
- Apps in the US can now include buttons, external links, or other calls to action for web payments.
- No fee entitlement is required for these external links.
- Apple must remove all UX friction and allow unfettered access to external payment links.
- Developers are now free to communicate with users about outside payment options.
These changes represent a complete reversal of Apple's previous stance and open up significant opportunities for app developers and their teams.
The opportunity
A quick glance at the core advantages this ruling brings to the US mobile app market:
Keep more revenue
With Apple’s commission removed on external purchases, you can retain extra revenue and pay fees as low as 3-6% – certainly much less than what you're paying today.
Enhanced cash flow
Although not all web payouts are born equal, developers are no longer at the mercy of Apple's lengthy up to 60-day payout window. With more control of your cash flow, these funds can then be put to use acquiring more users.
Pricing flexibility
You're no longer bound by Apple's pricing tiers or restrictions. This means you can create time-limited sales, coupon codes, special bundles, and localized pricing strategies that were previously impossible.
Direct customer relationships
Collect emails, demographic data, and communicate directly with your customers instead of having Apple mediate all interactions, enabling personalized engagement and powerful retention campaigns.
Churn prevention
Implement cancellation flows that can offer alternatives when users try to cancel, like pausing subscriptions or special retention offers – Paddle's Retain product automatically uses data points to win back customers before they're gone for good.
Expanded audience
Reach customer segments that traditional app marketing doesn't capture, particularly older demographics who often show better retention rates when purchasing through web channels.
But with freedom comes responsibility
More revenue for product development and performance marketing to accelerate growth - These legal changes are huge and there’s going to be a real temptation for developers to dive headfirst into web payments (understandably).
But we do need a touch of caution here.
The App Store handles several critical functions that many in the app space take for granted and there needs to be an adequate replacement.
Global payments: Supporting different payment methods worldwide.
Fraud prevention: Protection against chargebacks and payment fraud.
Subscription management: Handling trial periods, renewals, and cancellations
Global tax compliance: Managing international tax obligations and complexity.
Moving to web payments without addressing these backend complexities could create serious operational and legal issues. Yes, you’re gaining more freedom but that comes with responsibilities.
How can app developers protect themselves?
If you have a significant volume of sales on the App Store and you’re moving that to the web, you need to be ready for those extra complexities.
That means deciding whether to take on and staff all those new jobs yourself, and whether the cost makes sense, or to implement a solution that does this for you.
As a Merchant of Record (MoR), Paddle handles all these complexities like the App Store does, but for web payments.
We take on the legal responsibility for selling your app, managing global tax compliance, payments, fraud prevention, and customer billing support.
This approach gives you the freedom of web sales with the operational simplicity of the App Store, allowing you to focus on building great products rather than payment infrastructure.
It’s time to experiment
If there’s one thing you need to do right now, it’s experiment.
Embrace a test-and-learn mindset
This ruling creates a unique opportunity to discover what works for your specific app. Set up systematic experiments comparing web versus app-based monetization paths, measuring conversion rates, revenue per user, and retention across both.
Experiment with diverse pricing structures.
Test models impossible in the App Store: tiered discounts, seasonal promotions, and bundled offerings.
Try different subscription terms and intro offers, continuously measuring how variations affect both initial conversion and lifetime value.
Optimize through checkout variations.
Test different web checkout flows, comparing form length, payment options, and visual design.
Drive retention with smart salvage offers
While in-app subscriptions are notoriously easy to cancel, just a few taps and it’s done, web-based subscriptions give you the opportunity to step in before a customer churns. You can introduce smart retention tactics like pause options, discounts, or tailored messaging to win them back.
With Paddle, you don’t need to build these interventions yourself, we handle it for you, helping you retain more customers and grow recurring revenue.
How to implement external payments today
If you're already a Paddle customer using Web2App flows, you can now add a link to your existing Paddle checkout directly from your in-app paywall. After a successful purchase, Paddle sends a webhook that your system can pick up to enable purchased features – without paying Apple's fees.
For RevenueCat & Paddle customers, you can send traffic to the Paddle checkout you're already hosting in your Web2App flow. The RevenueCat/Paddle integration automatically triggers entitlements and enables purchased features.
If you're not yet using Paddle, you can still redirect users to a web checkout and avoid Apple's fees. However, your payment processor will handle transactions while leaving you responsible for tax compliance.
A sea change in the mobile app space
There’s no getting around it, this changes a lot.
After years of legal battles, this decisive ruling fundamentally changes the way developers can monetize their apps.
While the ruling is limited to the US market, it could prove to be the catalyst for further change abroad.
European regulators could view this decision as validation of their approach, potentially leading to even stronger actions against app marketplaces.
With this in mind, developers face a choice: build complex payment infrastructure themselves or partner with specialists who can handle the backend complexities while they focus on creating exceptional app experiences.
Ready to grow beyond the app store? See how Paddle helps mobile apps take payments on the web.
Take the headache out of growing your software business
We manage your payments, tax, subscriptions and more, so you can focus on growing your software and subscription business.
