Will Apple think this should be an in-app purchase?

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Created May ’18

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I'm creating an education company where people buy tickets on our website to attend our in-person educational events. These events entail education via a teacher and the use of our mobile app. The mobile app is free however the majority of content is locked and requires a passcode from the teacher to unlock. This is to promote attendees coming to our event and to getting a personalized educational experience. It's my opinion that attendees are buying tickets for the personaized exerience, the teacher, the education, and the class social dynamic, with the app being a tool that helps support the educational event.

My question is, do you think Apple will have an issue with this and think we're trying to circumvent their in-app purchase program? We haven't started building the app yet so I want to do my due diligence first. The main reason for locking the content is to protect our intellectual property and prevent others from using our app to replicate our business. Also, if Apple wanted to change our pay structure to just in-app purchases, they'd be taking 30% on so many aspects of our business than just the app content that's locked.

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Answer 1

KMT OP

May ’18

You seem to be confused about the mandates surrounding IAP, so just checking to confirm you've biased your scheme against the ASRGs/Business...

As well, about the website/app thing... see Section 4 Design Minimum Functionality

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Answer 2

PBK OP

May ’18

KMT gives the link to the guidelines. But what you propose seems to violate them. Two comments:

>The mobile app is free however the majority of content is locked and requires a passcode from the teacher to unlock.

This will certainly violate 3.1.1 and 3.1.4

> attendees are buying tickets for the...

This ("buying") cannot be done under IAP so you need to break up the 'fee' you are charging - part is for the attendance and part is for unlocking functionality within the app - that second part must be through IAP.

>The main reason for locking the content is to protect our intellectual property and prevent others from using our app to replicate our business

You might be able to operate under a 'reader app' (see 3.1.3) in which only people who sign up for the event get access to content that they can download into the app. Important here - the content is not unlocked, it is downloaded. I also think you can link the functionality of the app to something that only you are able to provide and provide in real time. For example, a questionaire can be broadcast locally through MCSession to everyone who has the app and is at the event.

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