EU welcomes Apple’s new App Store terms, Epic calls them junk fees

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The European Commission says it welcomes the new EU App Store business terms Apple announced on August 18. That suggests the regulator is willing to work with Apple’s revised framework, but the case is not closed. Epic Games, which has spent years challenging Apple’s fees, says the new terms still break the law.

Apple is replacing several EU fee structures with one set of terms

Apple is scrapping its patchwork of EU fee structures and moving every developer to a single set of terms from October 1, 2026. The per-install Core Technology Fee is gone, along with the Initial Acquisition Fee and the Store Services Fee.

In their place, Apple charges a flat commission based on how an app is distributed and how users pay:

• 26% for App Store sales through Apple’s In-App Purchase, with 15% for Small Business Program developers and subscriptions after year one
• 20% for App Store apps that use an alternative payment processor, dropping to 10% for small businesses
• 15% for purchases made through link-outs to the web, dropping to 10% for small businesses
• 5% Core Technology Commission for apps distributed through alternative marketplaces or the web

Developers can also offer Apple’s In-App Purchase alongside alternative payment options in the same app, something Apple never allowed before. Small marketplace operators earning under 10 million euros a year can get the 5% commission waived entirely.

The Commission will monitor the rollout

“The Commission welcomes Apple’s changes to their business terms, which follow a close dialogue between the Commission and Apple,” a European Commission spokesperson said in a statement shared with the press. The statement refers to the non-compliance decision on Apple’s steering rules and the preliminary findings on alternative distribution from April 2025.

That April 2025 decision came with a 500 million euro fine, which Apple is still fighting in court. The Commission has not formally closed its case. It will monitor how Apple implements the new terms, so the welcome is not a declaration that the dispute is over.

Epic says the fees still break the DMA

Epic Games rejected the new terms within hours, calling the new tiers “junk fees” that do nothing to open up iOS to real competition.

Epic’s argument is simple: the DMA says developers must be able to steer users to the web “free of charge” and make “effective use” of competing stores. In Epic’s reading, any commission above zero on those transactions violates the law, so a 15% link-out fee and a 5% cut on Epic Games Store purchases are just the old tax with new labels.

The Commission’s welcome suggests it considers the framework workable for now. Regulators spent more than a year in talks with Apple after the fine, and the fee levels Epic objects to are the ones that came out of that dialogue.

The new terms start October 1

The new terms kick in across the EU on October 1. Apple, which has long argued the DMA delays features and creates security risks for European users, gets regulatory breathing room just as its App Store model faces pressure everywhere else. EU developers finally get one rulebook instead of three overlapping ones.

Epic has no path to veto the deal, but it can keep lobbying the Commission and challenging Apple in court, which it has never been shy about. And if Apple’s implementation falls short of what regulators expect, the monitoring phase gives Brussels an easy way to reopen the fight.

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