Apple: the new EU payment directive will start working in a week and a half

On December 31, a new digital payment authentication policy will come into effect in Europe. It will also affect the App Store. Apple told developers how to prepare for changes.

According to Apple, the new PSD2 payment directive will have to increase the security of online payments. After its launch, banks will be required to transfer data to payment systems about users who want to pay online with their card.

As a result, purchases in the European App Store will all start to look about the same as they are now in Russia.

The user from the App Store will be transferred to the bank’s page where authentication is requested (in Russia, then they usually send a code to the phone number to which the card is linked, it needs to be entered just in a special form on the bank’s website). Then the user will be transferred back to the App Store, where they will be informed that the purchase has been completed. Important: purchases for less than €30 will not require this.

Apple noted that it will configure both the App Store and Apple Pay in accordance with the new rules. But developers will still have to make sure that their applications work correctly and do not violate anything.

What Apple advises developers:

• check whether the application is able to correctly process interrupted transactions via StoreKit. To do this, you need to create a transaction observer that will respond to new payments and synchronize pending payments with Apple;
• test different scenarios of interrupted transactions in a special sandbox.
• if payments are made via Apple Pay, developers need to make sure that the correct country code is used in their application. At the same time, it is worth checking that the application shows the final, and not the estimated purchase amount in the receipt.

Note that this digital payment authentication policy will only work on the territory of European countries. The CIS countries are not obliged to comply with it.