Apple today notified developers about a change that will impact apps with renewable subscriptions or other recurring transactions in India. Due to a new directive from the Reserve Bank of India, some in-app transactions made with credit and debit cards may be declined by banks or card issuers.
As explained by the company, this new directive requires local banks and financial institutions to require customer approval for any purchases that result in recurring transactions, such as renewable subscriptions.
Banks will have to obtain user approval via an “Additional Factors of Authentication (AFA)” in order to complete the transaction, otherwise it will be denied. Unfortunately, this also means that users in India may experience problems when trying to subscribe to apps using the auto-renewable subscription system in the App Store.
Starting in October 2021, regulatory requirements in India will apply to the processing of recurring transactions. The Reserve Bank of India has issued a directive that will affect purchases in India initiated via credit cards and debit cards for auto-renewable subscriptions.
This directive requires banks, financial institutions, and gateways to obtain user approval by conducting transaction notifications, e-mandates, and Additional Factors of Authentication (AFA) before the transaction can be completed. As a result, some transactions that don’t meet these requirements will be declined by banks or card issuers. For more information and updates, see the Reserve Bank of India website.
Apple says developers can promote payments using the Apple ID balance, as it will not be impacted by the new measures at this time. The company points out that Indian users “can add funds to their Apple ID using most credit and debit cards, Net Banking, RuPay, and UPI.”
Another solution is to enable Billing Grace Period in the App Store Connect, so that customers who have their subscription renewals denied will have time to update their payment information.
More details can be found on the Apple Developer website.
