On June 24, 2025, some U.S. iPhone users received a push notification from Apple Wallet offering $10 off a Fandango purchase of two or more tickets to F1: The Movie. Some also saw a promotional banner inside Wallet. The message was presented as an Apple Pay promotion, not as a payment receipt, boarding pass update, coupon the user had requested, or Formula 1 race alert.
The backlash was about the channel as much as the discount. Wallet is a built-in utility associated with cards, tickets, IDs, passes and transaction notices. Users argued that a film advertisement arriving on the lock screen crossed a boundary between a trusted tool and an Apple marketing outlet.
What Apple sent
Reports from June 24, 2025 identified the sender as Apple Wallet and the audience as at least some U.S. iPhone users. The promotion offered $10 off through Fandango when customers bought two or more tickets to F1: The Movie, Apple’s major theatrical release that weekend. Coverage described both a push notification and, for some people, an in-Wallet promotional banner.
The available reporting does not establish how many people received it, whether every recipient had the same Wallet configuration, or whether the offer required an Apple Card. Apple Pay and Apple Card are separate products; the reports described this as an Apple Pay offer. They also do not establish that the message was personalized using payment history, a Fandango account or other individual data.
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MacRumors’ contemporaneous report documented the offer and user complaints, while TechCrunch’s coverage placed it within Apple’s broader promotion of the film.
Why a movie discount felt out of place in Wallet
Apple’s own design guidance presents Wallet as a place for passes and related experiences such as coupons, receipts, tickets and notifications tied to those items. That makes a commercial message possible in a technical sense, but not necessarily expected by users who enabled alerts for practical information.
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The objections focused on three features of the campaign:
- It was unsolicited. People reported receiving marketing copy rather than an alert caused by a purchase, pass update or other action they had taken.
- It used a privileged surface. A Wallet push notification can appear on the lock screen and in Notification Center, where users generally expect high-value account or transaction information.
- It promoted Apple’s own entertainment business. The film was an Apple release, so users saw the message as cross-promotion through an app they cannot simply remove from iOS.
Some commenters compared the episode with earlier Apple ecosystem promotions, including the controversial automatic addition of U2’s album to users’ libraries. That is a user-drawn cultural comparison, not evidence that the two incidents had the same mechanism or policy status.
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Apple’s App Review Guidelines say push notifications must not be used for promotions or direct marketing unless the user has explicitly opted in through consent language in the app and is given a way to opt out. The guidelines also warn against unsolicited messages and say abuse can result in loss of push-notification privileges.
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That language explains why the Wallet notification looked contradictory to many developers and customers. It does not, by itself, prove that Apple formally violated its rules. The provisions are written primarily for developers submitting apps to Apple’s platforms, while Wallet is an Apple-owned system app. The published material does not show an enforcement action, regulator finding, lawsuit or Apple admission concerning this promotion.
The defensible conclusion is narrower: Apple’s developer rules created an obvious policy and optics problem, while the legal or formal status of Apple’s own system-app campaign remained unclear.
What is known—and what is not
| Question | What the reporting establishes |
|---|---|
| When? | June 24, 2025. |
| Where? | Reports specifically identified some users in the United States; worldwide distribution was not established. |
| What was offered? | $10 off a Fandango purchase of two or more tickets to F1: The Movie. |
| How was it delivered? | An Apple Wallet push notification; some users also reported an in-app Wallet banner. |
| How many recipients? | Not disclosed in the available reporting. |
| Did everyone opt in? | Not established. |
| Was it targeted using payment data? | No evidence in the reporting establishes that. |
Apple’s later software change
Coverage of the iOS 26 beta reported a dedicated Wallet notification category called Offers & Promotions. Later reporting described the control as a way to silence Wallet marketing messages, making it a more targeted remedy than turning off every Wallet alert. 9to5Mac first reported the setting in the context of the backlash, and later coverage revisited it.
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This should be understood as a product change that followed the controversy, not as a confirmed apology or admission of wrongdoing. Exact labels and availability can vary by iOS release and region, so users should check the settings shown on their device.
How to stop Wallet promotional alerts
On iOS versions with the dedicated control
- Open Settings.
- Tap Notifications, then Wallet.
- Look for Offers & Promotions and switch it off.
This targeted option is intended to leave other Wallet notifications—such as pass updates, transaction-related alerts or boarding information—available. If the wording is different on your release, use the Wallet notification categories displayed there.
On older iOS versions
- Open Settings.
- Tap Notifications, then Wallet.
- Turn off Wallet notifications if no promotional category is available.
The trade-off is significant: disabling Wallet notifications altogether can also suppress useful pass, ticket and transaction alerts. This was the broad workaround discussed around the 2025 incident, not a precise advertising control.
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If you use an Apple Watch
Check whether Wallet alerts are being mirrored from the iPhone. Changing the iPhone’s Wallet notification categories can alter what appears on the Watch, while separate Watch notification settings may affect mirroring. Test after changing the setting rather than assuming the two devices behave independently.
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The wider Apple-F1 context
Apple promoted F1: The Movie at WWDC 2025 and highlighted Apple-related production technology, making the Wallet message part of a substantial film campaign. That does not establish how recipients were selected or what data, if any, informed delivery.
Apple later announced that it would become the exclusive U.S. broadcaster for Formula 1 beginning with the 2026 season. That 2026 business relationship is relevant context for Apple’s interest in F1, but it was announced after the Wallet promotion and should not be treated as its cause.
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Why the incident mattered beyond one film
The central question was not whether a $10 discount was attractive. It was whether a reasonable user would expect a Wallet alert from the purpose for which Wallet notifications were enabled. Payment and pass utilities depend on users trusting that important alerts will not be crowded out by unrelated marketing.
Apple’s campaign demonstrated how quickly that trust can become an issue when a built-in app is used for cross-promotion. The available evidence supports criticism of the channel and the consent experience, but not claims that Apple sold user data, illegally advertised, reached every iPhone owner, or targeted people according to their spending history. No public response or apology was reported in the coverage cited here.
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