Apple's In-App Subscriptions Draw Ire from European Publishers

Posted 02/11/2011 at 7:10am | by Paul Lilly

0

Comments

Print

Apple introduced an in-app subscription model to coincide with the launch of the The Daily, a daily rag put out specifically for the iPad from Rupert Murdoch's News. Corp. conglomerate. Users can now set up their iTunes account to auto-renew. Those that do will be automatically charged 24 hours before the end of a subscription, unless the subscription has gone up. If it has, you'll have to re-authorize the subscription. So what exactly has the European Newspaper Publishers' Association in a tizzy?

According to a report over at Arstechnica, the ENPA is peeved at what it views as restrictive conditions as part of the new in-app subscription model. It's not the actual subscription model itself, but the level of control Apple is levying.

"In [the] future, consumers may only have access to the newspaper of their choice via the iTunes store, where the transaction would be subject to commission," the ENPA wrote. "Publishers today want to provide readers with a range of attractive options, including offers combining access to newspapers online and on tablets, or offers for print subscribers that also allow access to the newspaper on digital formats."

What the ENPA is complaining about is a new restriction in the App Store that could potentially prevent publishers from offering free iPad subscriptions to some readers, such as those who have already purchased a printed edition. Developers say they've been told by Apple that they can't make users sign in for content that was purchased elsewhere. This restriction would ensure that transactions pass through Apple, which would receive a commission on the sale.

For now, the ENPA isn't making any demands or legal threats, but those could both come if Apple isn't receptive to the organization's pleas.

Image Credit: flickr (# siu #)