Apple axes Match.com's iOS app over subscription billing squabble

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has removed Match.com's iOS application from its App Store after the dating website failed to adhere to the storefront's subscription billing policies.

TechCrunch reports Apple deleted the Match.com app because it enabled users to pay for Match subscriptions with a credit card using an external link, bypassing the App Store's billing mechanisms and denying Apple its 30 percent cut of subscriptions and content sold via iOS applications. The report adds that Apple and Match.com are currently in talks on how to revamp the app to meet the App Store's guidelines.

Apple introduced the App Store subscription platform in mid-February. Publishers and content providers immediately expressed serious reservations over the terms of the service, which awarded Apple 30 percent of subscription revenues, as well as ownership of consumer data like names and email addresses. Some smaller developers even scrapped their iOS application plans. Apple quietly updated the guidelines in June, removing all pricing guidelines and giving content providers the freedom to offer in-app subscriptions at any price they wish.

"Apps can read or play approved content (specifically magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music and video) that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app, as long as there is no button or external link in the app to purchase the approved content," reads section 11.14 of the revised App Store Subscriptions agreement. "Apple will not receive any portion of the revenues for approved content that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app."

Apple set a June 30 deadline to comply to the subscription rules. The following month, e-book retailers Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Kobo all removed purchase options from their iOS applications--in order to purchase new e-book titles, consumers must now access the iPhone or iPad's Safari browser to visit each company's respective website, a far more cumbersome and confusing process than direct in-app downloads. The moves resulted in a flurry of negative App Store user reviews.

For more:
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