Apple's developer war reignites after a yoga app says it was rejected from the App Store for refusing to auto-bill users

• Yoga app Down Dog tweeted on Tuesday saying its most recent iOS update had been rejected by Apple.
• Apple's grounds for rejecting the update was that Down Dog didn't implement auto-billing on its free trials.
• Last month Apple faced rage and insurrection from developers after it rejected an update from email platform Hey over its rules on billing.
• Following the backlash, Apple said it would allow app developers to challenge its decisions.

Another app developer is attacking Apple over its payment requirements, this time over seemingly squeezing money out of forgetful users.

Yoga app Down Dog tweeted on Tuesday that its latest app update had been rejected by Apple.

"Apple is rejecting our latest update because we refuse to auto-charge at the end of our free trial," Down Dog said in its statement, including a screenshot of an email from Apple.

"They can choose to steal from their customers who forget to cancel, but we won't do the same to ours," Down Dog added.

Apple declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider.

Apple's terms appear to indicate that apps offering a free trial period should do so via its App Store Connect service. Using that service would result in the free trial automatically turning into a paid subscription unless the user cancels.

Down Dog said it doesn't currently automatically subscribe users once their free trial is over.

The company said on Twitter: "We've experimented with auto-charging trials in the past and they lead to (1) fewer users trying the product (2) a huge number of refund requests by users who forget to cancel and (3) complete disbelief from those users when we explain that Apple won't allow us to issue refunds."

Down Dog's app was also briefly de-listed from Google's Play Store in June over how it allowed users to subscribe to its service. Down Dog quickly appealed and was reinstated to the Play Store within 24 hours.

Last month Apple ended up in a skirmish with developers after it rejected an update from the subscription email platform Hey.

Apple said Hey had breached its App Store rules by not including an option for users to sign up to its paid service in its app using Apple's own payment mechanism.

This had been a deliberate choice by the developers, since Apple charges up to a 30% commission on any payments made in-app. Instead, the Apple app was intended to be a portal for users who'd already signed up for the service.

After locking horns with Hey, Apple announced in late June that it would in future allow developers to appeal App Store rejections, as well as challenge App Store policy more generally.

Just as the fight with Hey erupted, the EU announced it was launching an antitrust investigation into Apple over the commission it charges on in-app purchases.

The investigation was set in motion in 2019 after a complaint from music-streaming giant Spotify, which claimed the 30% tax allowed Apple to give an unfair advantage to its own Apple Music service.