Epic Games and Spotify say Apple’s latest DMA changes are ‘illegal’ and ‘intentionally misleading’

Apple today updated its European Union Digital Markets Act compliance plan with changes related to external links. Developers can now freely direct users to in-app content purchase options, such as subscriptions, outside of the App Store without any restrictions or controls over customer messaging.

Apple has rolled out an update to comply with the European Commission’s pushback against its anti-steering rules, but there’s a new fee structure that’s complicated and hard to digest. Shortly after Apple announced the new terms, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney took to social media to describe Apple’s fee as “an illegal new 15% junk fee,” adding that the terms make it “completely unprofitable for developers to distribute their apps through both the Apple App Store and competing iOS app stores.”

Sweeney has been outspoken about Apple’s Digital Markets Act changes since the first updates were released in February, and has long accused Apple of maliciously adapting to them.

Spotify also had nothing nice to say about its updated linking policy. In a statement to TechCrunchSpotify said the changes are “intentionally confusing,” but that “at first glance,” Apple is still in “blatant disregard” of DMA requirements.

We are currently evaluating Apple’s deliberately misleading proposal. On its face, by charging a whopping 25% for basic communications with users, Apple is once again blatantly flouting the basic requirements of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The European Commission has made clear that imposing recurring fees for basic elements such as pricing and linking is unacceptable. We urge the Commission to speed up its investigation, implement daily fines, and enforce the DMA.

According to Apple, the new initial acquisition fee that developers using the links must pay reflects the value the ‌App Store‌ provides by connecting developers with customers in the EU. The second fee, for store services, reflects the ongoing services and capabilities Apple provides to developers, such as app distribution, ‌App Store‌ trust and security, promotional tools, anti-fraud checks, and more.

EU developers who choose to use links to direct customers to purchase options outside of the ‌App Store‌ will pay a commission of between 10 and 27 percent, depending on the ‌App Store‌ terms they agreed to and whether they are part of the ‌App Store‌ Small Business Program. Developers operating under the new DMA business terms that support alternative payment methods and distribute apps outside of the ‌App Store‌ will also have to pay a base technology fee in addition to the store services fee and initial acquisition fee.

The 10 to 27 percent commission for developers who link is down from the 15 to 30 percent that was required before any DMA change, but ‌Epic Games‌ and Spotify don’t think Apple’s fees are fair. Because ‌Epic Games‌ and Spotify are big companies, they would have to pay Apple a €0.50 fee for the underlying technology, which would cost tens of thousands per month.

‌Epic Games‌ plans to bring the Epic Games Store to iPhone and iPad in the European Union, and Sweeney said today that plan is still on track. The store is set to launch
“coming soon,” and Epic Games will charge developers 12 percent of payments it processes and 0 percent on payments to third parties.

Earlier this year, the European Commission fined Apple $1.95 billion for preventing music streaming apps like Spotify from informing users of lower subscription prices outside the app. In response, Apple created the Music Streaming Services Entitlement, which would require Spotify to pay a 27 percent commission on purchases made on the website through the App Store. The fee for the new Link Entitlement is the same for apps the size of Spotify.