Apple App Store Card Payments Resume in India as RBI Compliance Requirements are Met

Apple has brought back the ability to pay for App Store and iCloud purchases in India using debit and credit cards, following a five-year sabbatical. The functionality is set to be released to a wider audience in the coming months once it has been tested with a restricted group of users.

Following the implementation of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) card tokenisation and revised recurring payment regulations in 2021, Apple withdrew support for card payments in the country. Purchases made in the App Store or iCloud subscriptions in the country could only be paid for using UPI or net banking since then. Apple has started supporting debit and credit cards again after changing its payment system to meet RBI standards.

RBI's New Framework for Recurring Payment

Following the RBI's implementation of more stringent regulations for repeat online purchases, Apple ceased to accept debit and credit card payments from users with Indian Apple IDs. Merchants must now take extra authentication steps and register new e-mandates for recurring payments in order to comply with the new framework. Every recurring fee must have customer approval, and two-factor verification is one of the measures. Consumer verification code (CVV) and one-time password (OTP) authentication is also required for payments over INR 5,000.

 Instead of implementing the new system right away, Apple stopped accepting recurring payments through cards for App Store purchases and subscriptions in India. In order to stay in line with the standards set by the RBI, Apple changed the main payment options for iCloud and App Store purchases to UPI and net banking. In India, these have been the sole accepted payment methods ever since the policy shift.

According to reports, Apple is also aiming to incorporate UPI AutoPay so that customers may pay for recurring subscriptions easily and meet the e-mandate standards set by the RBI. Regulatory approvals are still pending, though, before the function can go live.

Apple Raises India Prices of its Products

In response to skyrocketing worldwide memory and storage costs, Apple has begun to pass the higher expense on to customers in India by dramatically raising the prices of a number of goods. These products include Mac desktops, MacBooks, iPads, Apple TV, and HomePod devices. Regardless of the amount of pressure on costs, the business has refrained from announcing any price hikes for iPhones in India or anywhere else.

Apple has already hinted at the change, stating in April that the current stock had protected margins and mitigated the effect of increasing memory costs. Nevertheless, it had mentioned that such advantages were anticipated to expire by the conclusion of June. It is mainly because of the impact of the extraordinary spikes in DRAM and NAND prices on its cost structure.