Apple's EU terms drop the per-install fee, and the EU-entity requirement with it

Apple updated its Developer Program License Agreement on August 18, 2026, and published a support page describing new business terms for apps distributed in the European Union. The headline change is a swap of one fee mechanism for another, and the two mechanisms have very different shapes.

From Apple's developer news post:

The Core Technology Fee, a per-install fee for developers who achieve extraordinary scale, will be replaced by the Core Technology Commission, a simple 5% commission on digital transactions in apps distributed outside the App Store. The new terms also eliminate the Initial Acquisition Fee and Store Services Fee.

Apple, "Changes for apps in the European Union," August 18, 2026

The terms take effect October 1, 2026. Developers can review and agree to them now.

The rate card, in full

The support page lists four distribution-and-payment combinations, each with a standard rate and a reduced rate. The reduced rate applies to Small Business Program, Mini Apps Partner Program, and Video Partner Program participants, and to auto-renewable subscriptions after the first year.

| Path | Standard | Reduced | |---|---|---| | App Store, Apple In-App Purchase | 26% | 15% | | App Store, alternative payment processing in-app | 20% | 10% | | App Store, out-of-app offer via actionable link | 15% | 10% | | Alternative marketplace or Web Distribution | 5% (Core Technology Commission) | — |

The link-out tier carries a time bound worth reading carefully: "Only sales made within 7 days of the link tap are subject to this commission." That is an attribution window, and it is the kind of parameter that determines whether a rate is a rate or a rounding error, depending entirely on how long a purchase decision takes in your category.

Per-install to per-transaction changes who pays

The Core Technology Fee was a per-install charge. Its cost was a function of distribution volume, and it was indifferent to whether an app made money. That produced the widely discussed failure mode: a free app that went viral could owe a large bill against zero revenue.

The Core Technology Commission is a function of digital sales. A free app with no in-app digital goods, distributed through an alternative marketplace, owes 5% of nothing.

The trade runs the other way at the top. A per-install fee is bounded by how many devices exist and how often people install; a percentage of revenue is not bounded at all. For a high-revenue app distributed outside the App Store, 5% of every transaction, indefinitely, is a structurally larger number than a fee that scales with installs — and the more successful the app, the wider that gap opens. Apple has moved the cost from the distribution event to the money, which is a more defensible place to put it and also a place where it compounds.

Apple's framing in the newsroom post is that this is a simplification and a settlement: "These changes resolve Apple's disagreements with the Commission over business terms and alternative distribution. They also reduce complexity by moving every developer that distributes apps in the EU to a single set of business terms."

Apple bills for transactions it does not process, and you self-report them

This is the mechanically interesting part, and it is easy to skim past.

The Core Technology Commission applies to sales inside alternative marketplaces and Web Distribution apps — payments Apple neither processes nor observes. So the support page places the reporting duty on the developer. Transactions subject to the CTC must be reported to Apple monthly, within 15 days following the end of the calendar month. Developers who operate marketplaces are responsible for reporting their own transactions too.

That is a new recurring operational obligation with a hard deadline, sitting on the developer's side of a boundary Apple cannot instrument. It also means the App Store commission and the CTC are enforced by completely different means: one is withheld at the register, the other is an invoice against a self-declaration.

Tax follows the same split. The page states: "For purchases of digital goods or services on the App Store that don't use Apple In-App Purchase, you're responsible for the collection and remittance of any applicable taxes for sales processed by an alternative payment provider."

There is also a switching cost written into the terms: "developers must maintain their choice of payment options for 12 months." Choosing alternative payment processing is an annual commitment, not a toggle.

The eligibility bar moved more than the rates did

Under the previous rules, operating an alternative app marketplace required a stand-by letter of credit and an EU legal entity. Both of those have changed, and one of them is a genuine structural opening.

From October 1, 2026, a developer qualifies by meeting at least one of seven criteria, per Apple's support page: a moderate financial-stability bar via Dun & Bradstreet scoring; being publicly traded or owned by a publicly traded company; having received venture funding from an established investment firm; having completed a financial audit by a licensed accountant; being a government entity, educational institution, or nonprofit with an approved fee waiver; providing a stand-by letter of credit of USD 1,000,000 or local equivalent; or having one million first annual installs worldwide.

The letter of credit is now one option among seven rather than the gate. And the page removes the jurisdictional requirement outright: "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."

A US or Japanese company can now run an EU iOS marketplace without incorporating in the EU. For anyone tracking whether the DMA's alternative-distribution provisions ever become load-bearing, that is a larger change than any single percentage on the rate card.

There is also a CTC waiver for small marketplace operators. The page names two thresholds: less than €10 million in global revenue over the last 12 months, and less than €1 million in total lifetime revenue from EU marketplace app downloads and subscriptions.

What to actually check before October 1

Three things are worth confirming against your own numbers rather than against the summary above.

First, which reduced-rate program you are in, if any — the gap between 26% and 15%, or 20% and 10%, is larger than the gap between any two distribution paths. Second, whether your purchase cycle fits inside the 7-day link-tap window, because outside it the out-of-app tier is 0%. Third, if you distribute outside the App Store, whether you have a process that can produce a complete transaction report within 15 days of month end, every month, starting October.

Apple's stated rationale for charging at all is unchanged and unapologetic: "Each of these commissions reflects the many ways Apple creates value for developers' apps, whether they use the App Store and/or Apple In-App Purchase."

Primary sources: Apple Developer, "Changes for apps in the European Union", Apple Developer Support, "Changes for apps in the European Union", Apple Newsroom, "Apple announces changes for apps in the European Union", read 2026-08-28.