Selling products on the iphone app using self-developed credit clearing services

Question

I would like to sell products through my application (insurance policies), and I do not want to use the in-app purchase mechanism, as this would mean sharing 30% of the product price. Instead, I would like to provide the user with a page for entering his / her credit card information and perform credit cleansing through my own self-developed secure services.

My question is: Does it sell products that are not content or features using my own purchasing system, which is prohibited by Apple or AppStore policies?

Answer 1

Obviously, I'm not a lawyer, but I think everything will be all right. Here is my interpretation of the three relevant rules from the developer guides (highlighted by me):

11.1 Applications that unlock or activate additional features or functions through mechanisms other than the App Store will be rejected.

11.2 Applications that use a system other than the in-app purchase APIs (IAPs) to purchase content, features, or services in the application will be rejected.

11.3 Applications using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside the application will be rejected.

The first rule forbids you to unlock anything inside your application using anything other than the App Store. This may prevent you from, say, creating a game that downloads new levels from your server depending on your membership on the website.

The second rule prohibits you from, say, creating a game and including PayPal in it to unlock more levels. Apple wants you to use the in-app purchase for this.

The third rule - and this is where it becomes interesting - prohibits you from using in-game purchases in the application to purchase "physical goods" or "goods and services used outside the application." However, it does not say anywhere that you cannot use other procurement systems.

With this third rule, I think Apple says the following: everything that works on the iPhone must be purchased through the App Store, and everything bought on the App Store must work on iOS. For something like insurance, which is not new functionality in the application, I think that everything will be fine. It’s absolutely worth the email to Apple Technical Support, but if you look at the Amazons app, you can purchase physical goods using the Amazons validation system.

Answer 2

Quote from Apple Guidelines - 11.3 Applications that use IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside the application will be rejected.

So everything should be fine. This is confirmed by applications that are already in the Apple application store, such as Groupon, Fandango, Chegg and others, which charge users credit cards for physical goods or goods consumed outside the application, without transferring the transaction through Apple.

It would be great to respond to everything to find out if you had any difficulties with Apple when publishing your application or not.

Answer 3

11.10

Insurance applications must be free, subject to the law in distributed regions and cannot use IAP https://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guidelines.html

Also read: http://www.quora.com/How-do-eBay-and-Groupon-get-around-Apples-in-app-purchase-system-despite-being-native-apps

In general, you can sell physical products through the app. However, you cannot use the InAppPurchase mechanism for this, but you must use your own payment mechanism.

The decision on this seems somewhat obscure from the recommendations. It would be interesting to know if your application has been accepted.

Answer 4

Recently, we presented an application in which non-digital goods were sold in the application, and everything went smoothly. Take a look at the following for more information:

Is Apple checking the purchase of physical goods during the application approval process?