Apple proposes a 15% cut on purchases made through external app links

[Undertaker_EU]

Apple submitted its proposed commission structure for purchases made through external links inside iOS apps to a federal judge, after failing to convince the Supreme Court to pause the underlying proceedings first. The headline number is a 15 percent commission on standard apps, with lower rates carved out for developers enrolled in specific Apple programs

The tiered structure gets pretty granular, small business developers would pay just 5 percent, while apps in the Video Partner Program, News Partner Program and Mini Apps Partner Program would pay 10 percent, and subscription renewals also get reduced down to 10 percent under Apple's proposal. This all comes out of the years long legal battle with Epic Games over Apple's App Store commission policies, and Apple had specifically been trying to delay revealing this exact commission structure until after the Supreme Court ruled on a separate contempt question

That separate question is whether Apple violated a court order when it previously imposed a 27 percent commission on external link purchases along with rules restricting how developers could even present those links to customers. The Supreme Court rejected Apple's request to pause the lower court proceedings, which forced Apple's hand into filing this proposed structure now rather than waiting for that separate ruling

Apple's stated justification is that these commissions let it recoup its investment in the tools, technology and services underlying the App Store and its broader software ecosystem, framing the fee as compensation for infrastructure rather than pure gatekeeping. The company also pointed to Google Play as a comparison point, noting Google charges 20 percent on standard link out purchases, 15 percent for special program apps, and 10 percent on subscription renewals, and specifically noted that Epic Games itself already agreed to those Google Play rates

Whether a federal judge actually accepts 15 percent as reasonable given the ongoing dispute over Apple's previous 27 percent rate remains the open question here. And this filing is really just Apple's opening position in what is clearly still an active negotiation playing out through the court rather than a settled outcome

Apple proposes to take a 15% cut of purchases made outside the App Store | TechCrunchtechcrunch.com

[Sabu]

Citing Google Play's rates as a benchmark is a clever legal move since Epic already agreed to those numbers elsewhere. Makes it much harder for Epic to argue 15 percent from Apple is unreasonable when they accepted something higher from a direct competitor

[Socket91]

Trying to delay this filing until after the Supreme Court ruled on the separate contempt question was a pretty transparent stalling tactic.

Glad the court saw through it and forced Apple's hand regardless

[Undertaker]

This whole saga just keeps grinding on for years at this point.

Be genuinely surprised if 15 percent ends up being the actual final number that survives further appeals and objections from Epic's side

[WarningPoint49]

Going from 27 percent down to 15 percent after getting smacked down by the contempt ruling shows how much leverage that court order actually had.

Apple clearly was pushing the absolute ceiling of what it thought it could get away with before this

[Craig71]

The Video Partner, News Partner and Mini Apps Partner Program carve outs suggest Apple has learned exactly which developer categories generate the most negative press when treated poorly. And is targeting concessions there specifically rather than reducing rates across the board

[StarfieldPilgrim]

Curious whether a judge actually has the authority to approve or reject a specific commission percentage like this. Or if the court's role here is narrower than people are assuming and mostly limited to enforcing the underlying anti-steering violation. Worth watching how the judge actually rules on that distinction

[EventHorizon47]

Apple's framing about recouping investment in tools and technology sounds reasonable in isolation but ignores that developers already pay Apple's standard 15 to 30 percent commission for purchases made inside the app itself. This is specifically about purchases happening entirely outside that system

[Ronan_34]

The tiered structure with small business developers at just 5 percent is a smart move. It blunts criticism from the smaller app makers who tend to generate the most sympathetic press coverage in these disputes

[RealGaz26]

Subscription renewals dropping to 10 percent is actually a meaningful concession for any app with a recurring revenue model.

That adds up fast for a company running subscriptions at scale over a full year

[Amy80]

15 percent still feels like a lot for a purchase that happens entirely outside Apple's own payment infrastructure, the whole point of an external link is that Apple is not processing anything. Charging a meaningful cut for basically just allowing the link to exist is a strange justification once you actually think through what service is being rendered