Yesterday, Apple revised its App Store fees for developers in Europe to comply with the European Commission’s guidelines. Soon after, some of Apple’s biggest antagonists including Epic Games and Spotify criticized the revised rules. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney was one of the first responders to the new fee structure, calling them “junk fees”. Spotify, on the other hand, said the new terms are “unacceptable”.
Epic Games CEO is calling Apple’s structure “junk fees”
Soon after Apple posted the revised fee structure on its website, Epic Games and Spotify released their statements about the new rules. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney posted a screenshot highlighting Apple’s new fee structure on X. He went on to add that the new terms make it completely uneconomical for developers to distribute their apps.
Along with the image, the CEO said, “In the European Union where the new DMA law opens up app store competition, Apple continues its malicious compliance by imposing an illegal new 15% junk fee on users migrating to competing stores and monitor commerce on these competing stores”.
Sweeney has always been outspoken about Apple’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) changes. He also criticized Apple’s first DMA updates, which were introduced earlier in February.
Spotify believes revisions to Apple’s fee rules are “deliberately confusing”
Spotify is also not happy with the revisions to Apple’s fee structure for developers in the EU. According to a statement to TechCrunch, Spotify is currently assessing Apple’s new revisions. However, “at first glance” the company finds them “deliberately confusing”. The music streaming provider sees Apple’s latest rule changes as disregarding the Digital Markets Act in the European Union.
“We are currently assessing Apple’s deliberately confusing proposal. At first glance, by demanding as much as a 25% fee for basic communication with users, Apple once again blatantly disregards the fundamental requirements of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The European Commission has made it clear that imposing recurring fees on basic elements like pricing and linking is unacceptable. We call on the Commission to expedite its investigation, implement daily fines and enforce the DMA”, reads Spotify’s statement to TechCrunch.
Apple’s revised structure splits the commission into two new fees
As per Apple’s new DMA business terms, the Core Technology Fee is still there. The developers must pay €0.50 for each first annual install per year over a million threshold. The CTF provides devs access to over 250,000 APIS, TestFlight, Xcode, and more. Notably, in the new terms, the Cupertino tech giant has split the previous commission into two new fees.
The first is an Initial Acquisition Fee, where Apple will collect 5% of any sales made by a new app. It applies for the first year if the app uses links to direct users out of the App Store. The second change is the “Store Services Fee”. As part of it, Apple will charge 10% for any sales made by developers on any platform within the 12 months of the app installation.
It appears that both Epic Games and Spotify expect the EU to set a standard rule on sales made outside of the App Store. They expect the new rule to bar Apple from collecting any fee on app sales or purchases via outside channels. We’ll have to just wait and watch how the EU responds to Apple’s revised fee structure.