Apple’s EU fees for games since 1 October 2026

Apple moved EU developers onto one set of business terms on 1 October 2026, on the date it announced in August. Since then you can put Apple’s in-app purchase, your own payment processor and a link to your web shop in the same game, and each route has its own commission. This page covers the terms as of 2 October 2026, how they differ from the June 2025 terms they replaced, and the dispute over whether Apple may charge for links at all.

What Apple charges EU games since 1 October 2026

Apple announced the unified terms on 18 August 2026 and says they followed “close collaboration with the European Commission.” They took effect on 1 October 2026 with the rates unchanged from the announcement. The Initial Acquisition Fee and the Store Services Fee are gone, and a percentage has replaced the per-install Core Technology Fee.

The reduced rate applies to members of the App Store Small Business Program (up to $1M in proceeds in the prior calendar year), the Mini Apps Partner Program and the Video Partner Program, and to auto-renewable subscriptions after their first year.

The link-out rate comes with a time limit:

On the terms as written, if a player taps your link, leaves, and buys from a bookmark three weeks later, you owe Apple nothing on that purchase. Nor do you owe anything on a sale to a player who arrives from your newsletter without a link tap in the previous 7 days. The same 7-day rule applies to linked web sales from apps distributed outside the App Store, at the 5% Core Technology Commission.

What $100 of player spend leaves you

Here is each route for $100 of spend by an EU player, before your own payment, tax and fraud costs.

The old-terms rows assume the StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement (EU) Addendum, which carried the 5% Core Technology Commission, and a player within the 6-month window for the 2% initial acquisition fee. Small Business Program members paid 0% initial acquisition fee under those terms.

Three things drive the choice. First, the gap between in-app purchase (26%) and a link (15%) is 11 points before payment costs, and the gap between your own processor in the app (20%) and a link is 5. Second, every non-Apple route moves tax and payment work onto you: Apple says you are responsible for collecting and remitting taxes on sales that do not use in-app purchase. That work is what a merchant of record or payment service provider charges for. Third, the 7-day window means the share of web spend that arrives outside it goes to you in full. For a game whose best players buy on a routine, that share can be large, and it is the number worth measuring first.

What changed on 1 October, compared with the old terms

The June 2025 terms that ran until 30 September 2026 were built around the install, not the tap. Apple charged the store services fee on sales made within 12 months of a player’s most recent install, update or reinstall. For a live game that ships updates, that window covers nearly every active player.

Apple’s support pages now say the old addenda “have been superseded” as of 1 October 2026. An account moves to the unified terms once its Account Holder agrees to the updated license agreement. Fees already owed under the old addenda stay owed.

The conditions attached: lock-in, children and reporting

12-month lock-in. Apple says developers “must maintain their choice of payment options for 12 months.” That covers in-app purchase, your processor in the app, web links, or a combination. Treat the first choice as a one-year commitment and test the web shop before you switch the whole EU.

Child safety. These rules shape any game with a young audience:

• Kids category apps must put alternative payment flows behind a parental gate and cannot offer web purchases through an out-of-app offer.
• Players under 13 can use your in-app processor only behind a parental gate and cannot be shown out-of-app offers at all.
• Players aged 13 to 17 must pass a parental gate for both your in-app processor and out-of-app offers.
• Where a country sets the age of parental consent above 13, the higher age applies. In some storefronts that means under 16 and 16 to 17.

If a large share of your EU players are teenagers, the parental gate sits in front of every web offer they see. Plan for lower conversion in that segment.

Reporting and tax. On the App Store you must report every alternative payment transaction to Apple each month, within 15 days of month end, so Apple can calculate its commission. Apps distributed outside the App Store must report all transactions subject to the Core Technology Commission, including ones that did not complete. On any sale that does not go through in-app purchase, collecting and remitting tax is your job or your provider’s.

Where the Commission stands, and why 15% could still move

The Commission fined Apple €500m on 23 April 2025 for breaking the Digital Markets Act’s anti-steering rule. Its reasoning is the benchmark critics now hold the new terms against:

Apple asked the General Court on 7 July 2025 to annul that decision and cancel or reduce the fine (Case T-438/25). The case is pending.

After Apple published the unified terms, AppleInsider reported a Commission spokesperson saying the Commission “welcomes Apple’s changes to their business terms” and “will monitor Apple’s effective implementation of the new terms.” We could not find that statement on the Commission’s Digital Markets Act news page or in its press corner as of 2 October 2026, and neither carried any item on Apple’s terms after they took effect. Epic’s response, in the same report, was that Apple’s terms “deliberately violate the Digital Markets Act” because the law requires link-outs to be free of charge.

The Commission’s decision against Google on 23 July 2026 shows how it reads the rule today. It fined Google €430m over Play’s steering terms (the Play part of an €890m decision that also covered Search) and wrote:

Read together, the two statements suggest the Commission accepts some fee on steered sales and judges it by level and duration. Apple’s move from a 12-month window to 7 days fits that reading. Whether 15% is an acceptable level has not been decided in any published ruling.

Timeline

Checklist for EU iOS games under the unified terms

1. Confirm your Account Holder has agreed to the updated Apple Developer Program License Agreement. Apple moves an account to the unified terms on agreement.
2. Choose the payment mix per game: in-app purchase only, add your own processor, add a web link, or all three. You are held to that choice for 12 months.
3. Check how you will identify under-13s (or the local consent age) and put parental gates in front of alternative payments and web offers for 13 to 17 year olds.
4. Build the monthly transaction report to Apple, due within 15 days of each month end, before your first alternative sale.
5. Measure what share of your web spend happens within 7 days of a link tap. That share pays 15%; the rest pays nothing to Apple under these terms.
6. Confirm who collects and remits VAT on your non-Apple sales, you or your provider. The tax guide covers the options.