A recent court ruling in the US has EU app developers protesting – the 9th Circuit Court ordered Apple to stop charging developers for payments outside the App Store. Now European devs want the same and call on the EU to act, saying that this creates an unfair advantage for US-based developers.
This goes against EU laws – as a “gatekeeper”, Apple is required to allow developers to charge customers outside of the App Store without paying fees. That is not quite what Apple promised, though. Following a €500 million fine, the company announced a new two-tier system for Apple Store Service fees. This included a 5% commission (or higher) on payments made outside of the Store (previously, Apple forbade developers from even advertising that this is possible). In the US, Apple is not allowed to charge such a commission at all, after the court ruling.
A Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) has formed with notable members like Epic, Spotify and others who have had legal disputes with Apple over its app store policies. Global Policy Counsel for CAF, Gene Burrus, says: “It is bad for European companies, and it is bad for European consumers.” EU devs have to either eat the extra costs or pass them down to consumers, adds Burrus.
EU devs have additional worries that they want the Union to look into. Apple has announced that there will be new policy changes in 2026 – but it hasn’t said what they are yet, even though the new year is only a couple of weeks away.
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