As you may have seen, South Korea today approved a new law that will require digital platform makers like Apple and Google to allow developers to use third-party payment systems, a change that will save developers a lot of money. When it was proposed, this law was referred to by its advocates as “the Google law” because Android has such a stranglehold in that country. But it’s fair to say that it will impact both companies---and, potentially others---hard, given how the massive revenues they each derive from the online stores.

I already wrote about the news and my worry that Apple and Google will try to bypass it, most obviously by support third-party payment systems only in South Korea, which would be a burden to developers and could lead to some developers just not offering apps there. Here, however, I’d like to focus on something different: What Apple and Google said about this new law. It’s rather incredible.