Apple has rewritten the rules for distributing apps in the European Union, and the changes take effect on 1 October 2026. The company published the details on 18 August in its developer news feed and in an expanded support document. Most of the coverage has focused on the fee percentages, but the parts that will actually change what an EU iPhone owner sees are elsewhere.
More app stores, from companies with no EU presence
The most consequential change for users is a loosening of who may run an alternative app marketplace. Apple’s own support page states that eligibility for operating an alternative marketplace and for Web Distribution “have been expanded to include additional options”, and adds that “Companies are no longer required to have a legal entity or be established in the EU to operate an alternative app marketplace or use Web Distribution.”
That is the point worth reading twice. The previous bar was high enough that alternative marketplaces on iPhone have been a rarity rather than a real choice. Lowering it should mean more of them, which is what the Digital Markets Act was for. It also means the operator of the store you install an app from may have no legal entity anywhere in the EU — which is precisely the entity you would need to chase if a purchase goes wrong, a refund is refused, or your data is mishandled. More choice is genuinely good. Less local accountability behind that choice is a cost, and Apple’s announcement does not dwell on it.
New parental gates on alternative payments
Apple is also adding child safety requirements to apps that use alternative payment options on the App Store, and these are specific:
- Apps in the Kids category must put any purchase flow using an alternative payment processor behind a parental gate, and cannot offer an out-of-app purchase on a website at all.
- Users under 13 must pass a parental gate for alternative payment purchases, and out-of-app offers are not permitted to them.
- Users aged 13 to 17 must pass a parental gate for both in-app alternative payment processing and out-of-app purchase offers.
- Where an EU storefront sets a parental-consent age above 13, Apple says the same protections apply at that higher age.
Apps distributed in EU storefronts can now offer alternative payment methods alongside Apple’s own In-App Purchase, rather than choosing one or the other. Developers must stick with whichever option they pick for 12 months.
The fee changes, in brief
The Core Technology Fee — a per-install charge that applied to developers at large scale, and the single most criticised element of Apple’s previous DMA compliance scheme — is gone. In its place is the Core Technology Commission, which Apple describes as “a simple 5% commission on digital transactions in apps distributed outside the App Store”. The Initial Acquisition Fee and Store Services Fee are eliminated entirely.
App Store commission on Apple In-App Purchase sales in the EU is set at 26%, dropping to 15% for developers in the Small Business Program, Mini Apps Partner Program or Video Partner Program, and for auto-renewing subscriptions after their first year. Sales processed through alternative payment processing inside an app are charged 20%, or 10% for those same categories.
Apple’s framing of all this is that it is “making changes to its business terms for apps in the European Union, following close collaboration with the European Commission”. That is the company’s own characterisation, and it is worth noting that Apple’s earlier EU compliance scheme drew sustained criticism from developers and scrutiny from the Commission before this rewrite. Whether the Commission agrees the result is compliant is a separate question, and one that is not settled by an Apple developer-news post.
Members of the Apple Developer Program can review and accept the updated terms now; the rates and rules go live on 1 October.
