Apple is now giving refunds to anyone who bought Peace, previously dubbed as the most popular ad blocking tool on the App Store, the app's developer confirmed in a blog post.
Shortly after the unveiling of the company's newest operating system, iOS 9, Peace, which had a tag price of $2.99, skyrocketed to the top spot on the Apple's App Store. This reportedly generated a huge amount of money for its creator, Marco Arment, who did not go into detail how much he made from the app.
However, Arment decided to pull the app out from the App Store, Friday, Sept. 18, just two days after it rose to fame. In his blog post, he says he did not feel good about his success.
"Ad blockers come with an important asterisk: while they do benefit a ton of people in major ways, they also hurt some, including many who don't deserve the hit," says Arment. "Peace required that all ads be treated the same-all-or-nothing enforcement for decisions that aren't black and white. This approach is too blunt, and Ghostery and I have both decided that it doesn't serve our goals or beliefs well enough."
Additionally, in his post, he advises everyone who has already installed Peace into their phone to request reimbursement from Apple, since he has no way to issue the refunds himself.
"Apple notified me this afternoon that they'll be proactively refunding all purchases of Peace," Arment reveals in a new blog post on Monday, Sept. 21. "It will probably take a few days to process."
This seems to be a rare instance for the App Store, reports say. Apple usually applies its no-refunds policy for its customers who have downloaded applications created by third parties.
Arment reports in his post that in the past few days, more than 13,000 customers were granted reimbursements via the regular system.
Some Twitter users, however, do not mind whether or not Apple refunded their money.
@marcoarment consider my $2.99 as a tip for the great work on @OvercastFM !
— Chris Wagner (@cwagdev) September 20, 2015
@marcoarment keep my money! — Ryan Schmidt (@ryanschmidt) September 21, 2015
I wonder if this is the least profitable email @appfigures has sent. Over 10,000 refunds so far! (which I encouraged) pic.twitter.com/B9JsvTlr17 — Marco Arment (@marcoarment) September 20, 2015
