EU App Store fees: Apple kills per-install charge
Apple will retire the per-install Core Technology Fee in the European Union and replace it with a flat 5% commission on digital transactions made outside the App Store. The new EU App Store fees, announced on August 18, will take effect on October 1, 2026. Developers can sign the updated agreement immediately.
The overhaul goes further than the headline fee swap. The standard commission for App Store apps that use Apple's In-App Purchase system will fall from 30% to 26%, and the initial acquisition fee and store services fee will be eliminated outright. Once the terms take effect, every EU developer will operate under a single set of business terms, replacing the layered framework Apple built for its Digital Markets Act compliance.
The new fee structure at a glance
The new EU App Store fees will give developers four distribution routes, each with a lower rate for eligible small businesses:
| Distribution route | Standard rate | Reduced rate |
|---|---|---|
| App Store apps using Apple In-App Purchase | 26% | 15% |
| Alternative payment processors | 20% | 10% |
| External link-out purchases | 15% | 10% |
| Alternative marketplaces or web (Core Technology Commission) | 5% | n/a |
The 15% in-app purchase rate will apply to developers in the Small Business Program, partner programs and subscriptions in their second year or later. The per-install Core Technology Fee, introduced with Apple's original Digital Markets Act response, was the most contested element of that plan from the start. It charged €0.50 for every first annual install above one million, and it applied whether or not a developer earned anything, so a free app with a large install base could still owe Apple a substantial bill.
The real-world weight of that structure was considerable. An app with two million first-time installs in a year carried a €500,000 obligation before selling a single copy. The Core Technology Commission that will replace the fee will be tied to actual sales: paid apps, subscriptions and digital goods sold through third-party stores or a developer's own website will carry the flat 5% rate, and the other two charges on alternative distribution, the initial acquisition fee and the store services fee, will be gone as well. Distributing outside the App Store under the new EU App Store fees will involve a single, predictable cost.
The per-install model drew criticism from the start because it made alternative distribution costlier for high-volume apps than the App Store itself, undercutting the point of opening the platform. Regulators and developers singled out the installation levy as the main obstacle to genuine third-party stores, and its removal is the core of this settlement.
What the new EU App Store fees mean for you
The consumer impact is indirect but real. The per-install fee was the strongest deterrent to bypassing the App Store because it taxed scale rather than revenue; developers most likely to benefit from alternative distribution were also the most exposed to it. Once that barrier is removed, the arithmetic will shift. Under the new EU App Store fees, a developer paying 26% on App Store sales will drop to 5% by distributing through a third-party marketplace, a spread large enough to fund genuine competition.
Whether that competition reaches consumers depends on how developers use the savings. Lower commissions do not automatically translate into lower prices, and many developers will treat the difference as margin. The likelier consumer-visible effect is wider choice: more apps on alternative stores and the web, and more apps steering users toward link-out signups, where the fee gap between 26% and 15% makes web subscriptions noticeably cheaper to sell.
Not everything will loosen. Notarization requirements for apps distributed outside the App Store will remain in place, and developers will have to commit to a chosen payment processing option for 12 months, so sideloading mechanics will stay largely unchanged. Apple has described the terms as the result of close collaboration with the European Commission, which has expressed satisfaction with the revised structure, a signal that the long-running dispute over the Digital Markets Act is close to resolution.
The standard-rate cut from 30% to 26% will matter mainly to larger developers, since most smaller studios already qualified for the 15% tier through the Small Business Program or partner programs. The single-terms model of the EU App Store fees will also bring predictability: a developer will no longer juggle separate agreements depending on whether an app sells through the App Store, a third-party marketplace or its own website.
There is a cost to Apple in the deal. The company's most recent 10-Q filing warns that the revised EU terms could pressure Services revenue, the trade-off for ending the fight. With roughly six weeks until the terms take effect, the realistic near-term outcome for consumers is a gradual widening of app choice; a wave of price cuts is the less likely scenario.
Why this matters
The planned end of the per-install fee is the clearest sign yet that Apple and EU regulators have found workable common ground under the Digital Markets Act. For iPhone users in the EU, the new EU App Store fees will remove the main economic barrier to app-store competition, and October 1 will show which developers actually shift distribution.
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Researched and cross-referenced against primary sources by the Bytevyte editorial team. This article was generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the Bytevyte editorial team.