Apple's New EU App Store Fees Take Effect, Replacing Core Tech Fee

Apple's EU unified business terms took effect October 1, 2026, according to a developer support page outlining the new fee structure across the European Union. App Store in-app purchases now carry a 26% or 15% commission depending on tier. Alternative in-app payment processing draws 20% or 10%. Linked-out purchases, where a user is sent to an external website to complete a transaction, cost 15% or 10%. Apps distributed entirely outside the App Store face a 5% Core Technology Commission instead.

The prior Core Technology Fee, a per-install charge that drew formal objections from developers and regulators, is described as eliminated under the new terms. That fee had been a flashpoint since the EU's Digital Markets Act forced Apple to permit alternative app distribution and payment systems starting in 2024. Apple's announcement of the replacement terms is dated August 18, 2026, giving developers roughly six weeks before the October 1 effective date. The support page does not specify which developers qualify for the lower-tier rates in each category.

For developers and the finance teams who negotiate platform costs, the shift matters because it changes the unit economics of every transaction rather than every install. A high-volume app with thin margins per download may have paid less under the old flat per-install fee; now its cost scales directly with revenue processed through any of Apple's four payment and distribution paths. Someone running a subscription business should recalculate total platform cost under each path, since choosing linked-out checkout over in-app purchase now carries a materially different commission even before considering the 5% Core Technology Commission that applies to fully external distribution.

Policy watchers tracking the Digital Markets Act's enforcement will read this as Apple's second attempt to satisfy both regulators and its own margin targets. The first attempt, the Core Technology Fee, drew criticism for charging developers per install regardless of whether that install generated revenue, a structure critics said penalized free and low-monetization apps disproportionately. A percentage-based commission tied to actual payment flows is harder to challenge on that specific ground, though it raises a different question: whether a 26% top-tier rate on in-app purchases meaningfully differs from pre-DMA terms in practice.

What is not addressed in Apple's announcement is how the tier thresholds are set, meaning developers cannot yet model which rate applies to their specific app without checking account-level terms directly. Managers overseeing app budgets should request documentation from Apple on tier qualification before assuming the lower bracket applies. The mechanism rewards developers who can route transactions toward lower-commission paths, assuming their user base tolerates being redirected to external payment pages, a friction point regulators have separately scrutinized. Six weeks passed between announcement and enforcement, a short runway for finance teams to rebuild pricing models.