Apple adds carveouts to its EU core tech fee, exempting free app developers and giving those with annual global revenue under €10M a three-year “free on-ramp”
TechCrunchNatasha Lomas
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple’s EU terms initially paired reduced commissions with a per-install charge; analysis of the original structure showed how that fee could burden a free or freemium app at scale, even without corresponding revenue. The earlier install-fee example made the exposure for non-paying app models unusually visible.
The carveouts arrive as Apple was also opening web distribution to qualifying EU developers that accepted the fee structure. That web-distribution option expanded choice, but also made the cost of opting into the new terms a more consequential decision.
First-order effects
Free-app developers are removed from the immediate per-install fee exposure, while developers below the stated revenue threshold receive time to enter the EU terms without that charge.
Apple narrows the set of developers for whom the Core Technology Fee is an immediate cost, reducing the commercial risk of trying its EU distribution options for smaller companies.
Second-order effects
Developers can assess web distribution and other EU terms more on product and customer-acquisition merits than on an upfront install-based liability; larger commercial apps remain the principal group facing that trade-off.
The change preserves a differentiated EU pricing framework: lower commissions and alternative distribution remain available, while the fee’s burden is concentrated on developers outside the new exemptions.
Third-order effects
The episode points to regulated platform pricing becoming more segmented by app business model and developer scale, rather than relying on a uniform fee across all participants.
If exemptions become the recurring response to developer-cost concerns, compliance debates will increasingly turn on which developers qualify and whether the remaining charges still permit viable alternatives to the platform’s default channel.
The trend: EU platform regulation is pushing app-store operators toward more granular, developer-specific monetization terms as they balance new distribution rights against platform economics.
I had posited when I appeared on the @stratechery podcast in February that Apple may have introduced the Core Technology Fee (CTF) as part of its DMA compliance just to give it away as a show of good faith. That seems to be what Apple is doing, per Macrumors:
Apple's taking another slice at the Core Technology Fee, which at first seems pretty reasonable — until you realize that three years after accepting the EU developer agreement terms you revert to the previous (poison pill) Core Technology Fee setup anyway …
“[...] no CTF is required if a developer has no revenue whatsoever” That's kinda key. Your entire developer account must make €0 annually from apps, in app purchase, or advertising, across all your apps (globally, not just the EU), before you qualify for the ‘free’ Core Technolo…
This is a tiny, meaningless fix - there's no combination of cut-outs and loopholes that will make the notion of charging 0.50 euro per install acceptable. — At the same time, I think Apple are making a mistake if they think “small business” matters to EU regulators as much as i…
This is great news!! Completely free apps no longer pay the CTF, and developers making less than €10M/yr (basically all indie devs) now have a 3 year buffer before CTF bills kick in — giving them time to adjust if any of their apps do end up getting over a million downloads …
Apple is tweaking its anticompetitive “core technology” junk fee - while still demanding a cut of transactions they have nothing to do with, from apps distributed through channels they have nothing to do with, in violation of EU law. Another rotten, bad-faith move.
No PWA support... Forget it. We'll support PWAs. No app distribution from the web... Forget it. Apps meeting near impossible criteria can distribute apps from the web CTF for all apps... Forget it. Free apps are exempted. All this mess only applies to iOS... Forget it. It a…
This obviously doesn't go to the heart of Apple's cash cow but will still be very significant for any free iOS tweaks even though there are probably limitations https://techcrunch.com/...
🍏€0.50 CTF in 🇪🇺: a misguided attempt to navigate DMA regulations that risked bankrupting indie devs. Dropping the fee and claiming to be saving devs from the very financial peril they created? How heroic of them! 🙄 Rings a bit hollow here. 😏
Apple just got rid of the Core Technology Fee for freeware developers. This means that Riley Testut doesn't have a reason anymore to charge for Delta in the EU and he can put it in the EU AppStore.