Apple Now Letting Developers Know When Customers Request In-App Refunds to Prevent Scams

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Apple is introducing a new in-app purchase server notification system that lets developers know when a customer requests and receives a refund for an in-app purchase, allowing the developer to take an appropriate action, such as revoking the purchased item.

inapppurchaserefund
Developers are not involved in Apple's refund process, which is handled by the company. Prior to now, when a user requested and received a refund for an in-app purchase, developers were not notified about the refund, leading to situations where customers could get a refund for a purchase and keep the in-app purchase.

It also caused issues with customer support as there was no clear communication between Apple and the developer in respect to in-app purchases.

In iOS 14, when a customer receives a refund for an in-app purchase, developers will receive a server notification and updated receipts with canceled transactions. From there, the developer can alert the customer about the refund and take the appropriate steps to remove the content.

Apple says that these changes will give developers more control over customer interactions, making gameplay more fair for all players and protecting the app's economy. Apple believes the notification system will also make it clear to players who have used refunds in this way that there are repercussions for refunds and that items won't be able to be kept.

Apple's refund notification system is live for developers as of today, and more details can be found in Apple's "What's new with in-app purchases" session that's available on the Apple Developer website.

Related Roundups: iOS 14, iPadOS 14
Tags: App Store, Apple Developer Program
Related Forum: iOS 14

Top Rated Comments

yossi Avatar
yossi
12 months ago
Why was this never automatic? If you ask for a refund for an app, the app should automatically be disabled.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
macduke Avatar
macduke
12 months ago
The real scam is all these apps that obfuscate the amount of money being spent through things like gems, coins, space bucks, etc. There should be a hard limit on how much money can be thrown at an app in a given time period. I do not believe it is morally ethical to use psychological tricks to addict people with lower intelligence or addictive personalities into giving you thousands of dollars per year for a stupid little game that delivers nothing of substantial value and keeps poor people poor. These are essentially digital drugs and it upsets me that Apple not only lets this slide, but seems to actively encourage it. This is one of those things we're going to look back on in 20 years and wonder how it was even legal.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
apachie2k Avatar
apachie2k
12 months ago

The real scam is all these apps that obfuscate the amount of money being spent through things like gems, coins, space bucks, etc. There should be a hard limit on how much money can be thrown at an app in a given time period. I do not believe it is morally ethical to use psychological tricks to addict people with lower intelligence or addictive personalities into giving you thousands of dollars per year for a stupid little game that delivers nothing of substantial value and keeps poor people poor. These are essentially digital drugs and it upsets me that Apple not only lets this slide, but seems to actively encourage it. This is one of those things we're going to look back on in 20 years and wonder how it was even legal.
completely agree - micro-transactions made things worse because of greed
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mariusignorello Avatar
mariusignorello
12 months ago

The real scam is all these apps that obfuscate the amount of money being spent through things like gems, coins, space bucks, etc. There should be a hard limit on how much money can be thrown at an app in a given time period. I do not believe it is morally ethical to use psychological tricks to addict people with lower intelligence or addictive personalities into giving you thousands of dollars per year for a stupid little game that delivers nothing of substantial value and keeps poor people poor. These are essentially digital drugs and it upsets me that Apple not only lets this slide, but seems to actively encourage it. This is one of those things we're going to look back on in 20 years and wonder how it was even legal.
That’s like limiting how much you can spend at Target. Adults need to be adults and learn self control.

Also, Apple does not “let it slide” because I’m willing to bet the majority of users purchase very little if at all.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PutTheFBackIn Avatar
PutTheFBackIn
12 months ago
I’m actually surprised this wasn’t already a thing. I imagine a lot of people had been taking advantage of it.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
unplugme71 Avatar
unplugme71
12 months ago

The real scam is all these apps that obfuscate the amount of money being spent through things like gems, coins, space bucks, etc. There should be a hard limit on how much money can be thrown at an app in a given time period. I do not believe it is morally ethical to use psychological tricks to addict people with lower intelligence or addictive personalities into giving you thousands of dollars per year for a stupid little game that delivers nothing of substantial value and keeps poor people poor. These are essentially digital drugs and it upsets me that Apple not only lets this slide, but seems to actively encourage it. This is one of those things we're going to look back on in 20 years and wonder how it was even legal.
Like the $99.00 for 10,000 gems And you can burn through it in 10 minutes and only gain 2% gameplay? Yeah it’s ********.

I would gladly buy a free game for $9.99 to get unlimited gems but only generate x per day.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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