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Apple has revised its App Store rules to be better compliant with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), but the fees associated with Apple’s revisions are still considerably high according to an article from The Verge.
After Apple was charged in June by EU antitrust regulators for not complying with the DMA, Apple released updates to their StoreLink External Purchase Link Entitlement on August 8, 2024.
The highlights are outlined in six bullet points on Apple’s News and Updates page, with readers invited to click through to a more detailed guide to the changes in their developer documentation.
The highlights include mentions of promoting “offers for purchases available at a destination of their choice,” developers being able to “use an actionable link that can be tapped, clicked, or scanned, to take users to their destination,” and that “Updated business terms for apps with the External Purchase Link Entitlement are being introduced to align with the changes to these capabilities.”
These changes are supposed to take effect “this fall” (no more specific start date appears to have been provided).
‘Nearly Endless 20 Percent Fee for Developers’
Per the article from The Verge, “Apple adds nearly endless 20 percent fee for developers in latest EU update,” the updates appear to give developers more freedom regarding linking to purchase options outside of the App Store.
However, the fees associated with the new feature are so steep and restrictive that “it’s hard to imagine any developer using it.”
That’s because, for developer who opt into the StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement (EU) Addendum, the associated fees include a 5% Initial acquisition fee, plus a 20% Store services fee that applies to “sales of digital goods and services, made on any platform, that occur within a fixed 12-month period from the date of an install, including app updates and reinstalls.”
The Verge points out that app updates or reinstalls by the user reset the clock back to 12 months left for the ongoing store services fee. Various other programs and mechanisms can lower the fees, including adding support for third-party app stores, charging for qualifying auto-renew subscriptions, and being a developer in Apple’s small business program. But the 12-month ongoing fees resetting at updates or reinstalls is what makes them potentially “endless.”
A recent TechCrunch article, “Apple revises DMA compliance for App Store link-outs, applying fewer restrictions and a new fee structure,” further clarifies some of the differences between Apple’s various terms and their associated fees, both existing and new. For example, the “Store Services Fee” will be “a 10% standard commission fee or a 5% discounted commission (e.g., for developers enrolled in the App Store’s small business program) under Apple’s new business terms; or 20% standard and 7% discount under Apple’s existing terms.”
Details on fees for both the Alternative Terms Addendum for Apps in the EU and the StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement (EU) Addendum can be viewed in the Commissions section of this Apple support page.
This is similar to a situation in the U.S. in which a federal judge questioned whether Apple had truly complied with the order to allow app developers to “steer” users to third-party payment options outside of the native App Store.
Related Reading
- News: Apple First to Be Charged With Violating EU DMA by Not Fully Allowing Steering (July 2024)
- News: Japan Enacts Regulatory Law Targeting Apple and Google Smartphone Marketplace Dominance (June 2024)
- News: U.S. Federal Judge and Epic Games Challenge Whether Apple Has Complied With Order to Allow Payment Steering (May 2024)
- Is What Epic Wants for App Stores What Other Game Developers Actually Want? (December 2023)
- News: Potential Apple App Store Policy Changes Due to EU’s Digital Markets Act (November 2023)
- FastSpring CEO David Nachman participated in Epic’s antitrust case against Google. Read FastSpring’s press release on the December 11, 2023 ruling in the case. “This is a win for gamers and studios.”
- Get tips on How to Sell a Mobile App or Game Outside App Stores.
- Already using a merchant of record to monetize your game directly to consumers? Here are seven great reasons to use FastSpring as an additional D2C solution.
About FastSpring
FastSpring is how gaming studios sell in more places around the world. For nearly two decades, FastSpring has been a payment provider you can use to sell games or in-game items on your website, web shop, or embedded directly into your game with fully customizable and branded checkouts just for you. FastSpring allows you to offload the complexity of global payments, sales tax and VAT compliance, player payments support, and many other aspects of payments management. Spend less time managing your payments and compliance and more time making great games!
Visit FastSpring’s game monetization page to learn more about how FastSpring supports game developers.
