The Core Technology Fee is dead. A flat 5% takes its place — and the door to running your own app marketplace just got a lot wider
Apple has announced a rewritten commission structure for apps in the European Union, its clearest attempt yet to settle a long-running standoff with the European Commission over whether its business terms actually comply with the bloc’s rules.
The headline change: the per-install Core Technology Fee is gone, replaced by a flat 5% commission on digital goods sold through apps distributed outside the App Store — whether via an alternative marketplace or straight from the web. Apple also reworked its rates for alternative payment processing and its own in-app purchases, and quietly dismantled most of the barriers that kept developers from launching competing app stores.
Why this keeps happening
This is not Apple’s first rewrite. In April 2025, the EU fined the company €500 million for breaching the Digital Markets Act and warned that more penalties were coming. Apple responded that June with a revised fee structure built around an initial acquisition fee, store services fees, and multiple service tiers — a design so layered that critics described it as “malicious compliance” rather than a genuine opening of the platform.
Simplification, then, is the point of this round. Whether regulators agree is the open question.
The new numbers
The updated fee structure significantly changes the economics for developers distributing apps in the European Union.
| What you’re doing New rate Old / standard | New Rate | Previous / Standard Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Digital goods sold in apps distributed outside the App Store | 5% | Per-install Core Technology Fee |
| Apple’s in-app purchase | 26% | 30% |
| In-app purchase, discounted tier | 15% | 15% |
| Alternative payment processing | 20% | Previously not applicable |
| Alternative payments, discounted tier | 10% | Previously not applicable |
That 15% discounted tier is the one most developers will actually land in. It applies through the App Store Small Business Program, the Mini Apps Partner Program, and the Video Partner Program — and to autorenewing subscriptions once they pass the first year. Developers in those same programs pay 10% insteadof 20% when using outside payment processors.
One catch worth planning around: whichever payment path you pick — Apple’s IAP, external processing, ora mix — you’re committed to it for 12 months.
Guardrails on external links
Apps permitted to route users to external links get two carve-outs. Anything in the Kids category is excluded entirely on safety grounds, and users under 18 will need parental approval before completing a purchase outside the App Store.
The bigger unlock: alternative app stores
This is the part that deserves more attention than the commission table.
Until now, launching an alternative marketplace in the EU meant clearing a genuinely difficult bar. You either proved substantial financial backing, or you demonstrated two years in Apple’s Developer Program plus an app that hit more than a million first annual installs in the EU during the prior calendar year. For most teams, that was a closed door.
Apple has now dropped the milestone requirement — it remains one available route, not the only one. Financial stability can instead be shown through public company status, audited financials, qualifying VC funding, and several other paths.
What it means if you build or market apps
Run the math again. Web distribution at 5% versus 26% through IAP is a large enough gap to change how you think about acquisition, pricing, and where you push renewals.
Check your program eligibility first. The difference between 26% and 15%, or 20% and 10%, likely outweighs every other optimization on your roadmap this quarter.
The 12-month lock is a strategy decision, not a settings toggle. Model it before you commit. Alternative marketplaces are now realistically buildable for funded startups and established companies — a category-level opportunity that didn’t exist for most players last month.
Apple has traded complexity for lower headline rates and a materially more open marketplace policy. That’s a real shift. But this is the third structure in roughly two years, and the Commission has rejected simpler-looking proposals before. Build your plans on the current terms — just don’t assume they’re the last word.
Forward this to someone shipping in the EU.
