Apple today published a single set of business terms for every developer distributing apps in the European Union, retiring the per-install Core Technology Fee in favour of a 5 percent Core Technology Commission and fixing the App Store rate for Apple In-App Purchase at 26 percent. Developers can sign the updated Apple Developer Program License Agreement immediately. The commercial terms take effect on Thursday, October 1, 2026.

The changes were announced through an update on Apple Newsroom and a set of revised developer support pages, all dated August 18, 2026. According to Apple, the package "resolve[s] Apple's disagreements with the Commission over business terms and alternative distribution" and reduces complexity "by moving every developer that distributes apps in the EU to a single set of business terms."

That single set replaces a two-track arrangement that has existed since early 2024, when Apple first rewrote its App Storerules to comply with the Digital Markets Act. Developers could either stay on standard terms or opt into the Alternative Terms Addendum for Apps in the EU, which unlocked alternative distribution and alternative payments but attached the Core Technology Fee to installs at scale. Both the Alternative Terms Addendum and the StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement (EU) Addendum are being phased out. From October 1, 2026 they are superseded by Attachment 14 of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement.

What developers will pay

The commission table published on the Payment options on the App Store in the EU support page sets four rates.

Sales processed by Apple In-App Purchase carry a 26 percent commission. That rate drops to 15 percent for participants in the App Store Small Business Program, the Mini Apps Partner Program or the Video Partner Program, and for auto-renewable subscriptions after a subscriber's first year.

Sales processed through an alternative payment processor inside an app carry 20 percent, falling to 10 percent for the same programme participants and for second-year subscription renewals.

Out-of-app offers that use an actionable link attract a store services commission of 15 percent, or 10 percent under the reduced tier. Only sales completed within seven days of the link tap fall inside that commission.

Apps distributed through alternative app marketplaces, apps distributed via Web Distribution, and the marketplace apps themselves are subject to the 5 percent Core Technology Commission. According to Apple, the commission applies to the total price payable by each user, less any transaction taxes, and App Store commission rates apply to the price paid by the customer.

There is a wrinkle worth flagging. The Newsroom text states that the new terms "eliminate the initial acquisition fee and store services fee," while the developer documentation published on the same day continues to describe a store services commission of 15 percent and 10 percent applying to linked-out purchases. The two documents use different labels for what appears to be a restructured charge rather than an abolished one. Apple has not reconciled the wording across the two pages.

The Core Technology Fee it replaces was, in Apple's own description, "a per-install fee for developers that achieve extraordinary scale." The Core Technology Commission attaches instead to transactions, which changes the risk profile for free and ad-funded apps that generate installs without corresponding digital sales.

A 12-month lock on payment choice

The most operationally significant clause for planning teams is not a rate. Developers distributing apps in the EU select their payment configuration - Apple In-App Purchase, alternative payment processing within the app, out-of-app offers with actionable links, or a combination - and must maintain that choice across all EU storefronts for 12 months.

For the first time in the EU, alternative payment methods can sit alongside Apple In-App Purchase in the same app. According to Apple, that combination "had not previously been permitted in the EU."

Presentation rules govern how the options appear. Apple In-App Purchase must be shown at the same time as any alternative, and displayed at least as prominently, with prominence determined by layout, language, font style, colour and size. The In-App Purchase button must be styled in black or white using Apple-provided artwork; the alternative payment button may carry brand colour, but colour may not be used to make it look like the preferred option. Where In-App Purchase buttons are not individually branded, they must be grouped inside a branded container whose branding is at least as prominent as any out-of-app offer link beside it. Payment flows "may not discourage or disrupt the use of Apple In-App Purchase," according to the documentation, and an app's App Store product page may not include information about purchasing through an alternative.

The App Store signals the arrangement three times: an informational banner on the product page, a disclosure in the Information section, and an External Purchases notation on the download confirmation.

Technical requirements and version gates

Alternative payment options require the StoreKit External Purchases or Offers Entitlement. Apps offering in-app alternative processing, or directing users out through an actionable link, must implement the ExternalPurchaseCustomLink API.

The entitlement key is com.apple.developer.storekit.custom-purchase-link.allowed-regions, an array of strings holding ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes. The valid list runs to 29 entries, extending past the EU's 27 member states to include Iceland and Norway.

Version gates are specific. The Entitlement Profile works only in apps on EU storefronts running a minimum of iOS 26.2, iPadOS 26.2, macOS 26.6, tvOS 26.6, visionOS 26.6 and watchOS 26.6, a set of minimums that is not aligned across platforms. Apple directs developers on earlier operating system versions to contact the company.

The call order is prescribed: check canMakePayments before initiating any purchase flow, check the isEligible property of ExternalPurchaseCustomLink, then call showNotice to display the system disclosure sheet when a user taps an alternative payment button. That sheet explains that the transaction is with the developer rather than with Apple, and users can suppress it for later purchases through a "Show This Reminder Next Time?" dialog.

Reporting obligations

Reporting is monthly, due within 15 days following the end of each calendar month, and covers refunds, corrections, renewals, one-time purchases and transactions that did not result in a purchase. Apps running iOS 26.4, iPadOS 26.4, macOS 26.4, tvOS 26.4, visionOS 26.4, watchOS 26.4 and later use the External Purchase Server API to report.

Apple aggregates transactions and calculates commissions by the fifteenth of the following month, and payment falls due within 30 days of the invoice. The company retains audit rights over developers' transaction records. According to the documentation, failure to pay commission can result in the offset of proceeds owed in other markets, removal of an app from the App Store, or removal from the Apple Developer Program.

The same reporting duty extends to alternative distribution. Marketplace operators must report their own transactions, including paid downloads of the marketplace app itself and subscriptions to a catalogue of apps, while developers distributing through a marketplace report purchases made inside their apps and through actionable links out of them.

Child safety requirements

New rules apply to any app using alternative payment options on the EU App Store.

Apps in the Kids category must place purchase flows that use an alternative payment processor behind a parental gate, and cannot provide an out-of-app offer to purchase on a website. For users under 13, alternative payment purchases must sit behind a parental gate and out-of-app offers are not permitted. For users aged 13 to 17, both in-app alternative processing and out-of-app purchase offers must sit behind a parental gate.

Where an EU storefront sets the age of parental consent for digital actions above 13, the thresholds move with it. In some storefronts the protections apply to users under 16 rather than under 13, and to those aged 16 and 17 rather than 13 to 17.

The Newsroom text frames the same rules differently, describing a parental gate for all users under 18 and a link-out prohibition for users under 13, which reads as a summary of the two developer-facing tiers rather than a separate standard. Developers determine authorisation through the canMakePayments call in StoreKit. Apple states that new APIs supporting these requirements will arrive in a future software update, without naming a release.

Eligibility widens for marketplaces and web distribution

Apple has expanded who may operate an alternative app marketplace or distribute apps from their own website. Companies are no longer required to have a legal entity or be established in the EU to do either.

From October 1, 2026, seven qualification routes exist for both capabilities: a Dun & Bradstreet Global Business Ranking score in the "Low Risk" or "Below Average Risk" categories; a listing, directly or through a corporate group, on an exchange in the World Federation of Exchanges or operated by Euronext; venture funding from a firm on the Midas List, Midas List Europe, Invest Europe or the HEC-Dow Jones Venture Capital Performance Ranking, with no minimum funding amount; a financial audit with an unqualified and unmodified opinion conducted within the last three years; an Apple Developer Program fee waiver as a nonprofit, accredited educational institution or government entity; a stand-by letter of credit of USD 1,000,000 from an institution rated at least "BBB-" and maintained for six months; or one million first annual installs worldwide on iOS or iPadOS in the prior calendar year, with two continuous years of programme membership.

The marketplace entitlement splits in two. A development entitlement is assigned shortly after submission so components can be built and tested in Xcode. The distribution entitlement requires eligibility verification and is assigned on October 1, 2026, or the approval date, whichever is later. Three routes allow earlier assignment: prior approval to operate a marketplace in Japan or Brazil, approval under the stand-by letter of credit option, or approval under the one million installs option, each conditional on agreeing to the Alternative Terms Addendum that is itself being retired.

Marketplace operators carry obligations that sit outside the fee schedule. They must publish terms covering content and business model, run intellectual property review before distributing third-party apps, provide an IP dispute process, and monitor for fraudulent or illegal apps. Apple states plainly that it will not assist with fraud, IP disputes, payment disputes or refunds arising inside a marketplace.

Small operators get relief. The Core Technology Commission is waived on fees charged to download a marketplace app, and on subscription fees for access to its catalogue, where the operator earns less than 10 million euros in global revenue over the last 12 months and less than 1 million euros in total lifetime revenue from those specific charges. Web Distribution requires a website domain registered in App Store Connect and reaches EU users on devices running a minimum of iOS 17.5 or iPadOS 18. Marketplace capabilities require iOS 17.4 or iPadOS 18. Every alternatively distributed app still passes through Notarization, which Apple describes as "a baseline review focused on basic functionality and protection from serious threats," checking accuracy, functionality, safety, security and privacy.

Apple's justification for keeping that gate is unusually direct. According to the Newsroom text, web distribution "does not have a marketplace operator standing behind it or ongoing oversight like the kind Apple provides for the App Store," which means "a bad actor distributing via the web can operate for a long time, harming users, before anyone catches it."

A quieter change lands in the same package. Beginning October 1, 2026, reader apps distributed in the EU may promote out-of-app offers for digital goods and services without an actionable link, whether or not they hold the StoreKit External Link Account Entitlement. Those offers must appear on a separate page from any link that lets users create or manage an account, and the app must use the StoreKit External Purchases or Offers Entitlement.

Installation changes due in autumn

Three further changes are scheduled for fall 2026 without a firm date. Apple will update the installation experience for alternative app marketplaces and for apps distributed from a developer's website. It will ship an API letting developers start downloads of their web-distributed apps from inside their own app. And EU users travelling outside the bloc will be able to install alternative app marketplaces and alternatively distributed apps for 90 days.

Interoperability requests now run on a published clock

Separately, Apple has documented the timetable for requests made under Article 6(7) of the DMA, the provision requiring gatekeepers to open interoperability with operating system features on equivalent terms.

Phase one, eligibility, closes within 20 working days of submission for most requests. Phase two produces a project plan within 40 working days of the eligibility outcome, classifying the work as "minor", "mild" or "significant" engineering effort. Phase three sets development windows of six months, 12 months and 18 months against those three classifications. Release follows in the first or second interim release after development completes for minor and mild efforts, or the first major release for significant ones, with a hard ceiling of 24 months from the date of submission.

Clocks stop when developers do not respond. A request for clarification unanswered within three working days suspends the deadline, as does feedback on a project plan taking longer than five working days, or the introduction of an appeal.

Rejections can be appealed through an internal review mechanism within 15 working days on two grounds: a technical finding that a feature is not controlled by or accessed via iOS or iPadOS, and a solution the developer considers less effective than what Apple's own services use. A panel of conciliators independent of Apple handles external non-binding review, initiated within 15 working days of the internal decision.

Apple maintains a public tracker of interoperability requests received since May 20, 2025, publishes summaries of technical reference queries from the same date, and issued its first annual performance report in March 2026. The company puts its API surface at more than 250,000 across software development kits and developer services.

Why this matters for marketers

Commission rates set the ceiling on what an app business can pay to acquire a user. A subscription app on standard App Store terms in the EU moves from a 30 percent headline rate to 26 percent on Apple In-App Purchase, or 20 percent by running its own processor, or 5 percent by leaving the App Store entirely and absorbing the cost of distribution, support and refunds. Those four numbers, rather than any creative change, determine what a marketer can bid inside user acquisition auctions, including Apple's own, whose economics PPC Land covered when the company reported record June-quarter services revenue on August 3, 2026.

The 12-month lock converts payment strategy into an annual commitment. A team that picks Apple In-App Purchase in October cannot test an alternative processor in January. That constraint interacts awkwardly with the seven-day attribution window on linked-out purchases, since any sale landing on day eight generates no commission but also no reported conversion inside Apple's accounting.

The reporting obligation is broader than most developers are used to. Transactions that did not result in a purchase must still be reported, which places abandoned checkouts and failed payments inside a compliance duty rather than an internal analytics choice.

For publishers, the reader app change removes a friction point that has shaped subscription funnels since 2021. Promoting a web offer without an actionable link, on a page separate from the account management link, gives magazine, news, audio and video apps a route to communicate pricing that does not depend on the older entitlement.

The wider regulatory context has not softened. The European Commission fined Apple 500 million euros in April 2025 over anti-steering, the General Court dismissed Apple's challenge to its gatekeeper designation on July 8, 2026, Italy's competition authority opened an interoperability probe into iCloud rivals in June 2026, and Germany's Bundeskartellamt set a four-month deadline for redesigning the App Tracking Transparency prompt. Apple has also criticised the DMA publicly, arguing in September 2025 that interoperability requests expose sensitive user data.

Whether the new terms shift behaviour is an open question. Research covered by PPC Land found the DMA's browser choice screens delivered Firefox around six million EU users while leaving Google near 90 percent of search, a reminder that structural remedies do not automatically move demand. Alternative distribution has been legally available in the EU since March 2024 without displacing the App Store. What changes on October 1 is the price of trying.

Timeline

  • January 25, 2024: Apple rewrites App Store, iOS and Safari policies for DMA compliance, introducing alternative marketplaces, alternative payment processors, browser engine choice and interoperability requests
  • June 26, 2024: Apple updates iOS and iPadOS with Web Distribution, NFC access and expanded default controls for the 27 EU member states
  • August 12, 2024: Apple expands external purchase links in the EU under the StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement
  • February 17, 2025: Deadline for developers to declare trader status under the Digital Services Act or face removal from EU distribution
  • April 23, 2025: European Commission fines Apple 500 million euros for breaching the DMA anti-steering obligation
  • May 20, 2025: Start date for Apple's public tracker of interoperability requests and technical reference summaries
  • June 26, 2025: Apple announces streamlined web marketplace installation and signals a unified EU business model for January 1, 2026
  • September 24, 2025: Apple publishes a statement criticising DMA interoperability requirements
  • December 2025: Apple makes app store and payment changes in Japan under the Mobile Software Competition Act
  • March 2026: Apple issues its first annual performance report on interoperability and reference queries
  • July 8, 2026: The General Court dismisses Apple's actions against its gatekeeper designation for the App Store and iOS
  • August 18, 2026: Apple publishes updated business terms for the EU and an updated Apple Developer Program License Agreement; developers can sign immediately
  • October 1, 2026: Unified EU terms take effect; Core Technology Commission replaces the Core Technology Fee; distribution entitlements assigned; Attachment 14 supersedes the Alternative Terms Addendum
  • Fall 2026: Updated installation experience, developer-initiated download API and 90-day travel allowance scheduled to arrive

Summary

Who: Apple, developers distributing iOS and iPadOS apps in the European Union, alternative app marketplace operators, and the European Commission, which Apple credits with close collaboration on the terms.

What: A unified set of EU business terms replacing the Core Technology Fee with a 5 percent Core Technology Commission, setting App Store commissions at 26 percent for Apple In-App Purchase and 20 percent for in-app alternative payment processing, with reduced rates of 15 percent and 10 percent for programme participants and second-year subscriptions, a 15 percent store services commission on linked-out sales, a 12-month lock on payment option choice, new child safety gates, and seven qualification routes for operating a marketplace or distributing from a website.

When: Announced August 18, 2026, with the updated Apple Developer Program License Agreement available to sign the same day and commercial terms taking effect October 1, 2026. Installation experience changes and the developer-initiated download API are scheduled for fall 2026.

Where: The 27 EU member states, with the alternative payments entitlement region list extending to Iceland and Norway, and contactless transaction APIs covering the European Economic Area.

Why: The terms follow enforcement and litigation under the Digital Markets Act, including a 500 million euro anti-steering fine in April 2025 and the General Court's July 2026 dismissal of Apple's challenge to its gatekeeper designation. Apple states the package resolves its disagreements with the Commission over business terms and alternative distribution.