Apple Will Allow Developers To Appeal App Store Violations

As a legal battle with Apple and Epic Games rages, Apple has made some changes to its policies that developers will appreciate. Apple announced an update to its app review process via a blog post recently. The update changes how the app review process is handled. Apple says that developers can now appeal decisions about whether an app violates guidelines and can suggest changes to the guidelines.

Apple wrote, “The App Store is dedicated to providing a great experience for everyone. To continue offering a safe place for users to download apps and helping you successfully develop apps that are secure, high-quality, reliable, and respectful of user privacy, weve updated the app review process as announced at WWDC20. For apps that are already on the App Store, bug fixes will no longer be delayed over guideline violations except for those related to legal issues. Youll instead be able to address guideline violations in your next submission. And now, in addition to appealing decisions about whether an app violates guidelines, you can suggest changes to the guidelines. We also encourage you to submit your App Store and Apple development platform suggestions so we can continue to improve experiences for the developer community.”

Apple’s change comes on the heels of it banning Fortnite and canceling developer Epic Games’ developer accounts for iOS and Mac operating systems. The legal battle started when Epic changed how it excepts in-game payments cutting Apple out. Typically, Apple gets 30 percent of any payment made on the App Store.