EU App Store Tiers and Core Technology Commission
Apple (Hacker News, MacRumors, MacStories, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, ArsTechnica):
Today, we’re introducing updated terms that let developers with apps in the European Union storefronts of the App Store communicate and promote offers for purchase of digital goods or services available at a destination of their choice. The destination can be a website, alternative app marketplace, or another app, and can be accessed outside the app or within the app via a web view or native experience.
App Store apps that communicate and promote offers for digital goods or services will be subject to new business terms for those transactions — an initial acquisition fee, store services fee, and for apps on the StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement (EU) Addendum, the Core Technology Commission (CTC). The CTC reflects value Apple provides developers through ongoing investments in the tools, technologies, and services that enable them to build and share innovative apps with users.
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By January 1, 2026, Apple plans to move to a single business model in the EU for all developers. Under this single business model, Apple will transition from the Core Technology Fee (CTF) to the CTC on digital goods or services. The CTC will apply to digital goods or services sold by apps distributed from the App Store, Web Distribution, and/or alternative marketplaces.
I find this really confusing, but I think when they say “single business model” they mean unifying the CTF and the CTC and the previous “alternative” terms for apps that are not using the traditional App Store model. There are still two models in that you can do the simple flat rate that’s the same throughout the world or the complicated and ever-changing EU model that supposedly satisfies the DMA.
By default, apps on the App Store are provided Store Services Tier 2, the complete suite of all capabilities designed to maximize visibility, engagement, growth, and operational efficiency. Developers with apps on the App Store in the EU that communicate and promote offers for digital goods and services can choose to move their apps to only use Store Services Tier 1 and pay a reduced store services fee.
They are being petty and saying that if you don’t pay for Tier 2, customers have to manually update your app, yet developers are forbidden from making their own auto-update system.
At this point, it’s unclear what exactly is meant by “Exact match”. […] What I found striking about the search differences between Tier 1 and Tier 2 is that in creating this distinction, Apple clearly considers App Store search to be a developer feature rather than a user feature. In other words, the user’s interest in finding an app via search is disregarded, and Apple is willing to be less helpful to users to the extent that app developers pay a lesser commission to Apple. A common talking point in defense of Apple’s App Store lockdown on iOS is that the App Store is supposed to be for the benefit of users rather than developers. Apple’s new policies give the lie to that notion.
If you agree to the Alternative Terms Addendum for Apps in the EU, your developer account will be assigned the StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement to enable the communication and promotion of offers. The agreement allows for two ways to offer digital goods or services for sale, and includes new business terms.
You can do the alternative terms with IAP for a reduced commission (vs. the rest of the world) or with external links/purchases (but then you have to pay the initial acquisition fee and the store services fee).
You can choose to use the App Store’s In‑App Purchase system or use options to communicate and promote offers for digital goods or services per EU storefront and per-app, which you can update by changing the entitlement election in Xcode by updating the property list key with a new app submission.
I think this is Apple’s way of saying that you can no longer give the user the choice of IAP vs. external purchase within the same app.
I’m pretty sure EU said CTF is not compliant, and the CTC won’t be compliant.
To me it seems like changes in framing and at the margins, rather than really addressing the core issues.
Apple always disagrees and always appeals, but these are pretty big changes. The introduction of a lower App Store tier with lower fees (but more spite?), combined with the reduced rates to the regular App Store fee structure, is especially fascinating. One has to wonder if Apple would’ve had as much trouble in the EU if it had made changes like this much sooner, but here we are.
Apple’s new EU App Store rules make my head hurt. Which is probably the point.
I wonder how many developers have seen all this churn and concluded that it’s better to just spend their time on Web apps.
I was a very motivated developer for Apple platforms in the past, but Apple’s handling of its monopoly and it’s “compliance” with the DMA are now making me take a serious look at Linux and Android.
Will Apple’s new EU fee structure pass this time?
It all boils down to: can an app trying to compete with an Apple app offer the same level of pricing that Apple has.
And the answer is, still, no. Apple still maintains the unfair advantage in both discoverability and in pricing, so by definition their proposal does not satisfy the DMA. It might reduce their rate from 30% to 12%, if you eschew App Store discoverability, but that’s still 12% more than any Apple app has to pay or needs to charge.
Apple’s distribution options will only be DMA compliant if and when e.g. a third party music app can match or undercut Apple Music’s pricing without wiping out its own profit margin.
Apple’s new terms might not be the colossal ‘fuck you’ the Core Technology Fee was to developers, but they amount to keeping the status quo, not truly enabling competition or following the law.
Previously:
- Critical Warning for External Purchases in App Store
- Court Orders Apple to Comply With Anti-Steering Injunction
- EU Fines Apple and Meta Over DMA Violations
- DMA Compliance Workshop: Notarization and Core Technology Fee
- DMA Compliance: Alternative App Stores But No Sideloading
Update (2025-07-04): Marcus Mendes:
In a post on X, Sweeney said Apple’s latest DMA update is “blatantly unlawful in both Europe and the United States,” calling it a “malicious compliance scheme” that “makes a mockery of fair competition.”
Apps with competing payments are not only taxed but commercially crippled in the App Store.
Apple blocks auto-updates to these apps, cripples search for them, and blocks customer support and family sharing, and otherwise ensures that using these apps will be an intentionally-miserable experience for users and a commercial failure for developers.
Apparently I’m paying a certain percentage of the Apple commission to be included in search. Can I opt out of just that?
Zero developer friends can figure out what normal app commissions will be. None. 😞
i think that’s the point
These changes are quite hard to parse and understand, so we read them for you so you can decide whether or not to take action.
What’s most crazy is devs think the normal fee got lowered from 30% to 20% (in EU) but no one is saying it publicly.
- we aren’t even sure
- high doubt they’d do it
- there’s so little goodwill left
I booked a lab to ask questions. 🤷♂️
Amongst other policy and API changes, Apple also announced a new, seemingly simplified, experience on iOS/iPadOS for installing apps and alternative app marketplaces in the EU.
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The new fee structure is undeniably convoluted, and I think downright confusing.
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One consequence of the €0.50 per-download Core Technology Fee (CTF) being replaced by a 5% Core Technology Commission (CTC) is that there will no longer be a penalty for small developers who have a free-to-download app that hits over one million EU downloads. That was a legitimate problem with the CTF — an app with 5 million EU downloads would owe Apple €2 million for the CTF, but might be generating far less than that (or even nothing at all) in revenue. But another consequence of switching to the CTC from the CTF is that super-popular apps from super-big companies that don’t sell digital goods from their apps will continue to pay nothing at all. E.g. unless Meta starts selling digital goods from within their apps, they’ll continue to pay nothing at all to Apple for zillion-download apps like Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. That was a shortcoming with the App Store’s model that the CTF was designed to correct.
But perhaps users may ultimately come out on top if App Store search is kneecapped. Perhaps Apple’s proposals will encourage more third-party app marketplaces, giving Apple competition for reaching users on its platform. Then, perhaps, the company would find reasons to loosen its reins and change its relationship with developers without being compelled by courts or regulators.
Or maybe Apple will preload Android onto its E.U.-bound iPhones. Seems similarly likely.
