On Friday, September 25 Facebook said businesses will be able to keep all of their paid online event earnings from now until December 31. Facebook Pay will process all paid online events purchases, meaning that businesses and creators will not pay the 30% Apple App Store tax for the remaining three months of 2020.
All businesses are eligible except gaming creators. Facebook will not collect any fees from paid online events while businesses remain closed for the pandemic, until at least August 2021.
Apple issues a statement or a rebuttal
A spokesperson for Apple told CNBC that it reversed its decision on the Facebook event fees “due to the pressures businesses are facing from the pandemic and that Apple wants to give those businesses more time to adapt to digital business models.
Additionally, the spokesperson said the App Store rule that requires a 30% fee does not apply to ticket real-world events, only digital events and Facebook has until the end of the year to implement in-app payments for real-world events. Airbnb and ClassPass also have until the end of the year to add the in-app payments for events.”
