Apple has rewritten its EU App Store fees, moving every developer distributing apps in the region onto a single set of business terms that take effect on 1 October, 2026. The company says the overhaul settles its outstanding disagreements with the European Commission over business terms and alternative distribution, folding several previously separate fee schedules into one structure across the App Store, alternative marketplaces and web downloads. It follows separate changes Apple announced earlier this month to App Tracking Transparency in the EU, part of the same push to bring its regional rules in line with what regulators have been demanding.
How the new EU App Store fees break down
Under the new terms, apps sold through the App Store using Apple’s own in-app purchase system pay a 26 percent commission. Developers who choose an alternate payment provider inside the App Store pay 20 percent instead. Apps distributed entirely outside the App Store, through an alternative marketplace, are instead charged a Core Technology Commission of 5 percent, replacing the per-install fee that developers said made it impossible to forecast costs as an app scaled. Apple has also eased the rules for running an alternative app marketplace in the EU, according to TechCrunch, lowering the bar for developers who want to operate their own storefront rather than route purchases through Apple’s.
Teqpost calculates the gap this creates: a developer earning $1 million a year through the App Store on Apple’s own in-app purchase system owes Apple $260,000 in commission. The same $1 million routed through an alternative marketplace under the 5 percent Core Technology Commission owes $50,000, a $210,000 difference on identical revenue. That gap is the entire incentive behind Apple’s alternative distribution rules, and the entire reason developers keep pushing the Commission to force Apple’s hand.
Epic’s court filing lands the same week
The fee rewrite arrives alongside a separate development in Apple’s long-running US litigation with Epic Games. Epic has filed its response to Apple’s request that the court order the two companies into settlement talks, though the substance of that response has not been made public. The two threads are not formally connected: one is a regulatory settlement with Brussels, the other a private lawsuit in US courts. But both turn on the same underlying question, how much control Apple can retain over how developers reach customers and get paid, which is why Apple’s EU concession lands the same week Epic is pressing its case in court.
We first reported on the fee rewrite when Apple announced it. What has changed since is the timeline: the new terms now have a firm start date of 1 October, and Epic’s response to Apple’s settlement request is now on the record with the court, even though its contents are not yet public.
What to watch next
The 1 October deadline gives developers roughly six weeks to decide whether to stay inside the App Store’s 26 or 20 percent commission or move to an alternative marketplace under the 5 percent Core Technology Commission. Whether the European Commission accepts Apple’s changes as resolving its investigation, or keeps it open, will determine whether this is the last rewrite or another in a series. Full details are in Apple’s announcement.
