Apple to automatically issue refunds for ad blocking app ‘Peace’

Apple is refunding consumers who bought Peace, the short-lived content blocker that rose to the top of its list of paid software before it was removed from sale, without requiring them to complain about the app’s quick demise.

Peace developer Marco Arment said in a blog post today that Apple will automatically issue the refunds to anyone who bought his app. He previously advised users to individually request refunds from the App Store, and said he granted 13,000 refunds between the app’s shutdown and Apple’s decision from this afternoon. This could be one of the first times Apple has issued such a mass refund to date, as typically requests are handled on a case-by-case basis, as Arment explained.
Arment said he struggled with deciding what to do with the money drawn from Peace sales. Now that decision has been taken out of his hands — and he’s glad:

Today, Apple made the decision for me, in a way that I didn’t even think was possible, and I’m actually happy — or at least, as happy as someone can be who just made a lot of money on a roller coaster of surprise, guilt, and stress, then lost it all suddenly in a giant, unexpected reset that actually resolves things pretty well.

I reached out to Apple for comment on its decision but have yet to hear back. This post will be updated if the company responds. In the meantime, here’s some more background on Peace, in addition to questions for the company that provided the database used to determine what content the app should block.