Guideline 3.2.1(vii) - Acceptable Business Model: Tipping Where Platform Takes a Cut

Apple is rejecting your app because it facilitates tipping or gifting between users but the platform takes a commission, service fee, or percentage cut from the tips. Apple's guideline allows optional tips from one user to another as a voluntary, no-strings-attached expression of gratitude -- but the platform facilitating the tips must not take a cut. The intent of this guideline is to distinguish genuine tips (100% goes to the recipient) from disguised revenue sharing that should be processed as IAP. If your platform retains any portion of a tip, Apple considers it a payment for a digital service, which falls under IAP requirements. This rejection commonly hits social platforms, live streaming apps, content creator platforms, and service marketplaces that offer tipping features. The fix depends on your business model: either pass 100% of tips to creators and monetize differently, or convert the tipping system to an IAP-based virtual gifting system where Apple gets its commission.