Apple is going to allow iPhone users in Brazil to pay for apps and services outside of the App Store itself, all to settle an investigation into supposed anti-competitive practices in the country.

Starting next year, Apple will allow app sideloading and external payment links for users in Brazil, following a local antitrust settlement.

In a post on X, he wrote, “Apple was required to open up iOS to competing stores today, and instead of doing so honestly, they have launched another travesty of obstruction and lawbreaking in gross disrespect to the government and people of Japan. Apple chose poorly. Again.”

Apple has been granted a temporary reprieve from needing to adhere to a Texas law forcing it to verify the ages of App Store users in the state.

Apple announces its App Store Awards each year during the final weeks of the year. Ostensibly, these reward developers for building apps and games that push creative boundaries on Apple devices including the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Watch, TV, and Vision Pro.

Due to regulatory action, Apple has agreed to allow alternative app stores, third-party payment systems for in-app purchases, and in-app links to external offers on iOS in Brazil, according to legal news website MLex and Brazilian blog Tecnoblog.

The store opened Friday, Dec. 12, at The Shops at Blackstone Valley after vacating its location at the Solomon Pond Mall in Marlborough.

An Apple Store will be one of the latest newcomers to the Montgomery Village shopping center. That would make it the Silicon Valley tech company’s second store in Santa Rosa. When the

Apple is opening a new store tomorrow at The Shops at Blackstone Valley, an open-air shopping center in Millbury, Massachusetts, near Worcester. The store is set to open this Friday, December 12, at 12 p.