In the first rejection case we’ve seen relating to Apple’s recently introduced app subscription polices, Readability announced last week that its official app had been rejected from the store due to Apple’s in-app purchase billing system not being present as an option for users of the service.

As you probably know we ourselves activated Readability on the site about a week ago now. It’s a simple service which allows you to aggregate content from a number of different sources. You pay a minimum of $5 a month to use the service then you use the easily saved browser bookmarklet to choose which pages you want to view now or save pages for later reading. If you think this sounds a lot like Instapaper, you’d be right – because it’s built in.

But it has a unique twist. Unlike Instapaper, Readability allows the publisher to earn something for their efforts. With Readability, RazorianFly (or any other blog for that matter) can receive a kickback from its reader base as a way of showing their support.

For example:

Joe Subscriber pays $10.00 a month for the Readability service. Of the $10.00, $7.00 (70%) is allocated for publishers. If Joe reads 14 articles with Readability on 14 different domains in the month of February, each domain will receive $.50 ($7.00 divided by 14 pages) from Joe’s contribution pool.

But writing to their official blog last week the developers of the service’s official App Store application outlined how the client for Readability had been rejected from the App Store due to Apple’s strict subscription policies.

Last Friday, you notified us that our Readability iOS application was rejected. In explaining the rejection, you pointed us to 11.2 in the App Store Review Guidelines:

“11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an app will be rejected.”

We’re obviously disappointed by this decision, and surprised by the broad language. By including “functionality, or services,” it’s clear that you intend to pursue any subscription-based apps, not merely those of services serving up content. Readability’s model is unique in that 70% of our service fees go directly to writers and publishers. If we implemented In App purchasing, your 30% cut drastically undermines a key premise of how Readability works.

The worst part? – Readability is an online-based subscription service, but Apple still wants its slice of the action. Apple’s new app subscription policies are currently under investigation by both the FTC and U.S Justice Department, and it seems that looking at this store rejection in particular, rightly so.

[Readability via MacStories