Korea Fines Google and Apple 63.7 Billion Won: Five Years of the In-App Payment Law

In August 2021, a small country did something the United States and Europe had only talked about. South Korea's National Assembly amended its Telecommunications Business Act to ban app-store operators from forcing developers to use their own in-app payment systems. Newspapers called it the "Google gapjil prevention law", gapjil being the Korean word for a powerful party bullying a weaker one. Korea was the first country in the world to pass such a rule.

Five years later, the law has finally drawn blood. On 28 October 2026, Korea's Broadcasting, Media and Communications Commission, the successor to the Korea Communications Commission, fined Google 42.9 billion won and Apple 20.8 billion won, a total of 63.7 billion won (about $47.6 million). It also ordered both companies to correct their practices, including allowing outside payment options, but decided not to file a criminal complaint. The decision had been in the works for three years.

Why Korea moved first

The trigger was a Google announcement in September 2020. Google said it would start enforcing its rule that apps selling digital goods through Google Play must use Google Play Billing, with its commission of up to 30%. Games had long paid it; the change would extend it to webtoon, music and video apps that had been using cheaper payment methods.

In Korea, that landed hard. Android dominates the Korean smartphone market, and Korean webtoon and content companies warned that a 30% bill would be passed on to readers and listeners. Lawmakers from both main parties backed an amendment, which passed on 31 August 2021 and took effect in September 2021.

What "in-app payment" actually means

It helps to be precise. An in-app payment is a purchase made inside an app, such as gems in a game or coins in a webtoon app, processed by the store's own billing system. The store takes its commission automatically before passing the rest to the developer. Third-party payment means the developer uses a different payment company inside the app. Outside payment, sometimes called a link-out, means sending the user to a website to pay. Korea's law targeted the first: forcing developers to use the store's billing and nothing else. The fight since then has been about how much the stores may charge for the second and third.

What the stores did instead

Google and Apple complied with the letter of the law in a way that frustrated its authors. Both now allowed developers in Korea to offer third-party payment options inside apps, but charged a commission of 26% on those purchases, only four percentage points less than the standard rate. Add a payment processor's own fee of a few percent and a developer saved almost nothing, or even lost money. Meanwhile, apps could still not freely link out to a cheaper web store.

Developers said the stores had replaced a ban with a price tag. The regulator began an inspection, and in October 2023 it announced that it planned fines totalling up to about 68 billion won for the two companies, citing practices such as forcing specific payment methods and delaying app reviews unfairly. Then came three years of hearings, responses and delays.

Korea's regulator itself changed shape during the wait. In 2025 the Korea Communications Commission was reorganised into the new Broadcasting, Media and Communications Commission, which inherited the in-app payment case and delivered the final decision.

The October 2026 decision

The final decision came on 28 October 2026. According to Korean press coverage, the regulator found that the two companies had used their position to restrict how developers took payments.

• Google: 42.9 billion won
• Apple: 20.8 billion won
• Total: 63.7 billion won, slightly below the up to 68 billion won proposed in 2023
• Corrective orders, including permitting outside payment options
• No criminal complaint, which the regulator had the option of pursuing

Both companies have the right to challenge the decision in court, and Korean reports noted that legal disputes were likely.

By the numbers

• 31 August 2021: National Assembly passes the in-app payment amendment.
• 1st: Korea was the first country to ban forced in-app payment by law.
• 26%: the commission Google and Apple charged on third-party payments in Korea.
• About 68 billion won: fines proposed in October 2023.
• 63.7 billion won: fines confirmed on 28 October 2026 (Google 42.9bn, Apple 20.8bn).
• About $47.6 million: the same total in US dollars.

What it means for Korean mobile games

Korea is one of the world's richest mobile game markets per player, and its biggest hits, from Lineage-style MMORPGs to collectible character games, earn most of their money through in-app purchases. Every percentage point of store commission is real money. For a publisher earning a trillion won a year on mobile, the difference between 30% and 20% is a hundred billion won.

The timing is interesting. While Korea's regulator deliberated, the US courts forced Apple to allow commission-free web-shop links in America in April 2025, and Google agreed in March 2026 to cut its standard Play Store fee to 20% or less worldwide as part of its settlement with Epic Games (see our Epic v. Google story). In other words, some of what Korea wanted has already arrived by other roads. The open question is whether Korea's corrective order now pushes Apple to offer Korean developers terms at least as good as it gives American ones.

WGC's take, and what to watch

Korea passed the right law first, and in the end it enforced that law last. The five-year gap shows how hard it is to regulate a platform that can comply in form while changing little in practice. Still, the decision matters: it confirms that a 26% fee on alternative payments is not the end of the story, and it gives Korean developers a legal basis to demand more.

It also matters for players. If Korean publishers gain the freedom to sell through their own web shops at lower cost, some of that saving could reach players as bonus currency or cheaper packages, as has happened in the United States since 2025. Whether it does will depend on the publishers, not the regulator, and on whether the corrective orders survive the coming court challenges.

What to watch next:

• Court challenges: whether Google and Apple appeal, and whether the corrective orders are paused while they do.
• Link-outs in Korea: whether Korean games start showing "cheaper on our website" buttons like their US versions.
• ONE Store and others: whether Korea's own store gains ground as Android opens up globally.

For a full tour of what each store charges in each country, see our commission explainer.