Apple Tweaks Rules for EU Market: New Fees, Fewer Restrictions on Link Outs

After the EU Commission launched an investigation into Apple for violating the Digital Markets Act, Apple has now adjusted its App Store rules. There will be fewer restrictions on link outs to purchase digital content on other platforms, but two new fees will be introduced. Criticism from Spotify and Epic Games quickly followed.

Apple has announced changes to its App Store rules for the EU after the European Commission launched an investigation into Apple's violation of the Digital Markets Act. The changes mainly affect apps that offer payment methods outside the App Store. A new fee structure and calculator were also announced, as some of the changes seemed unnecessarily complicated.

Apple writes about the new link out possibilities: "Communicate and promote offers for purchases available at a destination of their choice. The destination can be an alternative app marketplace, another app, or a website, and it can be accessed outside the app or via a web view that appears in the app." Warning messages are also softened if users use these links. Furthermore, the new version of the business terms (with the Core Technology Fee) no longer has to be accepted.

However, Apple still wants to make money from the purchase of digital content and services on other platforms, so it is introducing new fees when users make transactions outside the App Store. This includes an initial five per cent acquisition fee for new users. "The fee won't apply in the case of existing iOS app users; it will only apply to new users who download an app for the first time through the App Store, per Apple," Techcrunch explains.

The second fee is the Store Services Fee (ten per cent) for any sales made by app users within the 12 months after an install. Both replace the reduced commission that Apple had applied in its new business terms for the EU. There is also the Core Technology Fee. The whole system is not easy to understand, so Apple has also published a fee calculator. If developers stick to the standard business terms (and not the EU alternative terms), the Store Services Fee increases to 20 per cent.

Reuters summarises the previous fee system as follows: "Currently, Apple charges three types of fees: a core technology fee for the less than 1% of apps, a reduced commission for all digital goods and services sold through the App Store, and an optional fee for the payments and commerce services."

So Apple is relaxing some of its rules, but at the same time introducing new fees. The criticism has been loud. A Spotify spokesperson said to Reuters: "At first glance, by demanding as much as a 25% fee for basic communication with users, Apple once again blatantly disregards the fundamental requirements of the Digital Markets Act".

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, which continues to pursue plans to launch its own app store on iOS, wrote on X: "In the European Union where the new DMA law opens up app store competition, Apple continues its malicious compliance by imposing an illegal new 15% junk fee on users migrating to competing stores and monitor commerce on these competing stores. Apple's terms make it completely uneconomical for developers to distribute their apps through both the Apple App Store and competing iOS app stores, thus denying new app store market entrants any chance of competing and growing organically through better terms."

It remains to be seen how the EU Commission will react to Apple's announcement, whether the announced changes will be sufficient or not.

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