Apple details new fee structures for App Store payments in the EU

Apple has New fees for developers using the EU App Store in order to meet the requirements of the Bloc digital market law. Last month, the European Commission that Apple was not in accordance with the legislation and ordered the company to make changes within 30 days. Apple can still appeal the decision until July 7.

The new terms make things a little complicated. When applications promote offers of digital goods or services in the EU, they will be subject to “initial acquisition costs” and “store service costs” as well as basic technology costs for applications with more than a million annual installations. Developers who accept the Addendum of External Storekit Purchase Liaison (EU) will be invoiced a basic technology commission (CTC) of 5% rather than the CTF. The CTC applies to “all sales of digital goods or services that occur within 12 months from the date of an installation, including updates and resettlements of the application” rather than the CTF approach based on installation numbers. The exact rules and exemptions are now listed on a dedicated page.

There are also two distinct levels of expense structures. Level 1 is intended for applications using compulsory store services and level 2 coverage applications using optional store services. The initial acquisition costs are 2% for both levels, although participants in the Apple Small Business program and recurring subscriptions after the first year are not subject to these costs. Level 1 service costs are 5%, while level 2 is 13% normally or 10% for program participants.

This is the approach for the rest of this year, although Apple said it planned to adopt a single commercial model of the basic technology commission for all EU developers from January 1, 2026.

Apple also offers new terms on how developers can promote and communicate offers to EU users. The destination of a promotion can now be “a website, another application market or another application, and can be accessible outside the application or in the application via a web view or a native experience”. The company also reduces the language in the “fear sheets” which it displays when a user follows a link towards the outside of the App Store.