Apple announced an overhaul of its EU App Store business terms, replacing the per-install Core Technology Fee with a flat 5 percent commission on transactions made outside the App Store, effective October 1.
What’s changing
The new terms eliminate two other charges, the Initial Acquisition Fee and the Store Services Fee, and move every developer distributing apps in the EU onto a single set of business terms, according to Apple’s own newsroom announcement. For apps that stay inside the App Store using Apple’s own in-app purchase system, the standard commission is 26 percent, dropping to 15 percent for small businesses and specific partner programs. Apps using alternative payment processing pay 20 percent, or 10 percent under Apple’s reduced-rate programs. Developers can also build an alternative app marketplace for notarized iOS and iPadOS apps, though Apple authorization is still required to operate one.
The context
Apple says the changes came after close collaboration with the European Commission, positioning this as a resolution to the ongoing Digital Markets Act dispute over its prior EU terms rather than a voluntary simplification.
Why it matters
Simplifying a fee structure widely criticized as confusing is itself a real concession, but the underlying numbers matter more than the framing: a flat 5 percent on off-App-Store transactions is a specific, comparable figure developers can actually model against Apple’s old per-install fee, which is the kind of clarity regulators pushing the Digital Markets Act were explicitly after. Whether developers view the new commission tiers as a genuine improvement or largely the same money collected differently is likely to be the next round of this dispute, not the end of it.
What to watch: developer and regulator reaction once the new terms take effect October 1, not just the announcement itself.
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