Apple debuts new rules and fees for apps in the EU that link to the web for purchases, including allowing links to any website, and removes other restrictions
Honestly, if you can remember all of the various rules and fees for the EU App Store, I commend you. That's impressive. — RE: https://www.threads.net/... Mastodon: Kyle Howells / @iKyle@mastodon.social : This is insane. — Apple's new rules aren't any better either and aren't going to be allowed either. — They are just dragging this out as long as they possibly can. — https://mastodon.social/... Steve Troughton-Smith / @stroughtonsmith … : Here we go again. Fees upon fees upon fees. — https://mastodon.social/... Steve Troughton-Smith / @stroughtonsmith … : At this point I think I would feel relief if Apple were barred from doing business in the EU outright. Just show them the door. I'm ready to move on with my life X: Eric Seufert / @eric_seufert : What's important to consider about Apple's new link-out fees in the EU: they apply to purchases made on *any* platform after the user has installed the iOS app. As with the CTF, this imposes a liability on developers that they can't control. For link-out under the legacy business terms, these combined fees are only slightly lower than the commission that only applies to in-app purchases. M.G. Siegler / @mgsiegler : You can't help but feel that this is getting so impenetrable that it's almost like Apple is doing it this way on purpose... 🤣 https://spyglass.org/... @mysk_co : What's next? What stops Apple from charging €10 for the Core Technology Fee (CTF) instead of €0.50? The best thing in the announcement is that the link that should lead to the page explaining this frenzy of fees is broken. [video] Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : The interesting dance around Apple's DMA compliance is that it seems clear that the EU wants Apple to stop taxing developers for IAPs while Apple's compliance is to just rebrand the fee and keep the tax. We will see who blinks first. https://techcrunch.com/... Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : Apple has updated its DMA compliance and removed its Core Technology fee for developers who link to their website to pay digital goods instead of using the App Store. They have replaced with two additional fees totalling 15% (5% for acquisition & 10% for “store services"). [image] Benjamin Mayo / @bzamayo : So in case you weren't confused already by the EU rules, here's a wholly new tiered structure of fees specifically for apps that link out to an alternative purchase method on the web. https://9to5mac.com/... Matthew Ball / @ballmatthew : omg new EU iOS app fees [image] M.G. Siegler / @mgsiegler : These seem like good changes. But it also seems like Apple is going to try to smother most developers from ever implementing them thanks to a beyond convoluted structure and web of fees. Forums: r/apple : Apple announces new fee structure for apps in the EU that link out to the web for purchases MacRumors Forums : Apple Loosens App Store External Linking Rules and Changes Fee Structure in European Union
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple’s EU App Store model had already shifted from a single commission to separate access and usage charges: January rules paired alternative distribution with a €0.50 Core Technology Fee and set reduced App Store commission tiers. This update moves the policy fight from whether an app may direct users off-platform to what Apple can charge after that direction occurs.
The later EU App Store overhaul that replaced the Core Technology Fee with tiered commission underscores how unsettled this compliance framework remained. The key issue is not merely link permission, but whether the fee design makes external checkout commercially usable.
First-order effects
- EU developers can send users to any website for digital-goods purchases, while avoiding the Core Technology Fee for that link-out route.
- Those developers instead face a 5% acquisition fee plus a 10% store-services fee on qualifying link-out purchases, including purchases made on another platform after the iOS app is installed.
Second-order effects
- Payment-routing decisions become more complex: developers must weigh external-payment economics and post-install purchase exposure against Apple’s in-app purchase terms, rather than treating a web link as a clean bypass.
- The broad scope of link-out charges gives affected developers an incentive to improve attribution, customer-accounting, and checkout flows; it also keeps Apple economically involved when payment occurs away from its own checkout.
Third-order effects
- If fee structures continue to change in response to DMA scrutiny, EU App Store competition may be defined less by binary access rights than by regulated rules for attribution, service value, and platform take rates.
- The pattern tests whether regulators view formal permission to link out as sufficient, or whether charges and conditions that shape the practical viability of alternative payments require further intervention.
The trend: DMA-driven app-store opening is evolving into a contest over the price and measurement rules governing off-platform commerce, not simply permission to offer it.