The fine is small against a market worth 8.2 trillion won a year. The orders on payment choice, review delays and Apple's commission base carry the cost.
South Korea has fined Google 42.9 billion won and Apple 20.81 billion won, 63.71 billion in all, for forcing app developers into the stores' own payment systems. It is the first enforcement under the 2021 amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act.
The fines are small for both companies. The orders carry the greater cost. Both firms must rewrite payment terms and app review procedures. Google has scheduled external payments in Korea for December, so developers must choose a payment route by then.
The Korea Media and Communications Commission, the renamed KCC, ruled at its 46th plenary meeting on 28 October. It found that each company committed violations. Both allowed only their own in-app payment system and a third party option. Other methods, such as external payments, were barred.
What the regulator found
The third party option carried a 26 percent commission. It came without features such as subscription management. Google also restricted the display of prices by payment method. Apple required separate app submissions, a further hurdle for developers.
Both firms also delayed app reviews. They gave no specific reasons and no clear answers on timelines.
Apple alone was found to have discriminated between developers. From the July 2015 value added tax amendment until January 2023, it charged overseas developers 30 percent of the price net of tax. Korean developers paid 30 percent of the final consumer price, tax included.
That gap raised Korean developers' costs. Take Korea's 10 percent value added tax. On an item with a net price of 100 won, an overseas developer paid 30 won. A Korean developer paid 33 won. The domestic commission was 10 percent higher for about seven and a half years.
A fact finding against Google and Apple began on 16 August 2022. On 6 October 2023 it proposed fines of up to 68.0 billion won. That was 47.5 billion for Google and 20.5 billion for Apple. The final total is 4.29 billion won, or 6.3 percent, below that 2023 proposal.
Google's penalty fell from the 47.5 billion won proposed in October 2023 to 42.9 billion won. Apple's rose slightly from 20.5 billion won to 20.81 billion won. The total fell from 68.0 billion to 63.71 billion won.
View data
| Company | Proposed, 6 October 2023 | Decided, 28 October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 47.5 | 42.9 | |
| Apple | 20.5 | 20.81 |
| Total | 68 | 63.71 |
The fines in context
Google's fine fell 9.7 percent to 42.9 billion won. Apple's rose 1.5 percent to 20.81 billion. The decision came 1,118 days after the proposal. It came 1,870 days after the law took effect on 14 September 2021.
The commission's 2024 app market survey, published on 11 April 2025, sets the scale. It put 2023 transaction value across Korea's four app stores at 8.2 trillion won. The penalty equals about 0.8 percent of that one year of billings. The fine covers conduct over several years, so that is a scale and not a rate.
The market itself shrank 6.4 percent in 2023. Apple's App Store grew 10.1 percent. Google Play fell 10.1 percent.
The Act caps a surcharge at 3 percent of the relevant revenue, as defined by decree. Article 53 sets the fine by duration, gain and related revenue. Google's 42.9 billion won implies at least 1.43 trillion won of related revenue at the cap. Apple's 20.81 billion implies at least 0.69 trillion won.
What Google and Apple must change
The orders carry more weight because they are enforceable. Both companies must revise business procedures. These include app market policies that restrict the choice of payment methods, and their review procedures. Apple must also prevent a recurrence of discrimination between domestic and overseas developers.
If a firm misses the compliance deadline set by decree, the science minister can suspend part of its business under Article 52(5). The orders turn Google's December plan and Apple's voluntary changes into enforceable obligations.
Google announced in March a global policy allowing external payments and lower service fees. At a 1 April meeting, its executives told Chair Kim Jong-cheol that the Korean application was scheduled for December. He asked for an earlier start. Apple briefed the commission on voluntary improvements. The commission said it will keep monitoring market trends.
Chair Kim said he hopes the sanctions will serve as "a turning point toward substantive changes in market structure that app developers and end users can feel."
The commission's 2024 survey of 1,200 developers shows where the cost lands. Fieldwork ran from August to December 2024. Excessive fees were named as the biggest in-app payment problem by 70.4 percent. Google Play carried 67.5 percent of the surveyed developers' revenue and Apple 28.2 percent.
Review delays had been experienced by 36.8 percent of developers on Apple and 26.2 percent on Google. Google's share of the fine, 67.3 percent, is close to its 67.5 percent share of surveyed developers' revenue. Apple's 32.7 percent of the fine compares with its 28.2 percent.
The survey puts the four stores' fees at roughly 14 to 26 percent of transaction value in 2023. The regulator found a separate rate: Google and Apple charged developers on third party payment 26 percent. Those developers lost subscription management in return.
The decision for developers
For a Korean subscription or game company, or an overseas app with Korean users, the question is whether to build or buy external payment before December. The build route means payment gateway fees plus settlement and refund handling. The other route is staying in store billing and paying the commission.
The regulator has ruled on the economics of that route. It said the 26 percent fee, with no subscription management, did not give developers a real choice. It said the firms did not weigh the cost of building payment systems and settling commissions when they set that rate. Those costs come on top of the payment gateway fee.
Both firms said on 28 October that they complied with Korean law and will review the written decision before choosing a response, News1 reported. Neither has sued. The commission said it will defend any suit. Each firm has three months from the order to change its payment policy.
Apple said its App Store generated 38.1 trillion won of developer billings and sales last year, and over 90 percent of that carried no commission.
Google's Korean external payment policy is scheduled for December. By 31 December, watch whether Google Play in Korea lets developers show different prices by payment method, the condition the commission cited against Google. If it does, the decision will have changed the terms for developers who sell through Google Play. If it does not, the orders give the regulator a ruling to enforce, with a partial suspension order available as the last step.