Purchases, physical goods or virtual?

What you are selling is the link ["We link people (customers) to babysitters"] not the babysitter. That link is a virtual good not a physical service. If you tried to pay the babysitter for babysitting services through the app then that would be services. Use IAP.

aside - You have one h*ll-of-a liability issue especially if you enable any 'recommendations' that can be shown to be invalid. Add a good, valid disclaimer. I'm not sure what 'valid' requires.

Thanks for your quick response,

So, you are saying that if the money would 'flow' through our company (charge customer and after that pay the babysitter minus our fee) that would mean that we are providing a physical service???

It is not just the link that we are selling, we do also help customers in case babysitter doesn't show etc. so in that case way we are providing a service in the real world...

Could you elaborate on the liability issue? The recommendations would only be written by the customers and nobody else. Yes we have a disclaimer that should cover (hopefully) all situations...however we did not include anything about false recommendations...what are the liability issues with that?

Thanks in advance 😉

KMT said this in another post:

John:

The key is whether or not the product(s) being sold are virtual (game tokens, pro features, subscriptions to premium content, etc.), and consumed inside the app. If they are, then you must use IAP.

Otherwise, IAP is not allowed. An Apple engr. at WWDC once tried to explain it as... since Apple can't promise the user concerning the quality of any 3rd party service, Apple doesn't want to be involved/responsible and forced to deal with user issues/support/warranty etc. should that 3rd party and/or their product fail in any way to not do what was promised/paid for, from timely delivery to efficacy of service when said product/service is outside Apple's control.

Example: Your firmware bricks my lawnmower-drone...if Apple takes a percentage of that deal, Apple would be in the line of fire when I have to hire goats to stay out of trouble w/my HOA. Hate to think of the effect that would have on my AAPL shares

We are selling a virtual link basically, but there is also a 3rd party service.....Wouldn't Apple think itself in the firing line? True, we only provide the linking of people, but as said before we do in some cases take care of our customers (e.g. babysitter doesn't turn up).

So just want to make it absolutely clear if we are inside or outside of the IAP rules.

Also this rule bugs me (i'm probably totally wrong, I'm not an expert...you guys are):

3.1.5 Physical Goods and Services Outside of the App: If your app enables people to purchase goods or services that will be consumed outside of the app, you must use purchase methods other than in-app purchase to collect those payments, such as Apple Pay or traditional credit card entry. Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual currencies (e.g. Bitcoin, DogeCoin) provided that they do so in compliance with all state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions.

Our app enables people to purchase services that will be consumed outside of the app, via this 3rd party ...the babysitter

>So just want to make it absolutely clear if we are inside or outside of the IAP rules.

[disclaimer]There is only one thing we can make clear.[/disclaimer]

No one here can promise what App Review will/won't reject/approve.

App Review isn't here; they decide case/by/case, on the fly; they have the final word; there are no pre-reviews. Here, opinions rule.

>said this

Pls. note that anything said here 9 months ago was biased against review guidelines etc. from that time frame/context, and as such came with a subjective shelf life - current guidelines take precedence. Good on you for scanning previous threads, tho 😉

Ken

>if the money would 'flow' through our company (charge customer and after that pay the babysitter minus our fee) that would mean that we are providing a physical service???

Yes.

> It is not just the link that we are selling, we do also help customers in case....

If by "help" you mean people actually do something in real time based on a customer request then that is a service. If you mean that, based on the customer interaction with the app, computers send files and information from a database to the customer then that is virtual.

>Could you elaborate on the liability issue? The recommendations would only be written by the customers and nobody else. Yes we have a disclaimer that should cover (hopefully) all situations...however we did not include anything about false recommendations...what are the liability issues with that?

Two scenario in which I sue you -

1) you will lose this suit - I relied on your statement that "recommendation only written by customers...not...false" to hire Jill. Jill had great recommendations. It turns out all of the recommendations were actually written by Jill and her brother Bob and their friend Hank. Hank showed up while Jill was babysitting and trashed our apartment, kidnapped our child and......It turns out that by hacking your app, or simply pretending to be customers, or even being customers, they were able to place false recommendations that the customer relied on based on your assurance. So you can't suggest that your recommendations are valid unless you can be sure - and you can't be sure.

2) you will win this suit after spending $100,000 in legal fees - My child died of SIDS while Jill was babysitting. I have to sue someone and Jill is broke. I sue you.

>you must use purchase methods...to collect those payments

The payments refers to the purchase of the goods and services, not to the 'your app enables'. You can charge (and receive payments) for your app that enables as long as you are not charging for the goods and services that your app enabled.

No, Apple is not 'in the firing line'. They are just involved in the app, not what the app enables.

We have developed an educational app that allows students to view videos within the app by signing up for a fee, and the teacher conducts phone-guided learning, customized learning programs and more. Then we regularly pay the teacher a certain amount of tuition.

I don't know what to do because we want to know in advance which rules apply to this, not to blind development.